You can't ban heading – it’s a vital part of football | Clive Smith

As if football hasn’t been sanitised enough already with sliding tackles and 50/50 balls banned in some schools.

And these studies were largely conducted on men who played with those heavy leather footballs that were like medicine balls hurtling towards you from the sky. Today’s balls are a lot lighter.

What next? The banning of grass to be replaced by gym mats; throw-ins banned because of repetitive strain injuries; refs using tubas to halt play because whistles might cause tinnitus?

I remember in training having the ball placed on the centre spot and a player on opposing sides of the centre circle racing to the middle and basically just smashing into each other.

If you were up against the biggest lad in the school you generally got flung up into the air. It was character-building and you brushed yourself down and went again.

And back in the day, when you ‘broke your leg’ during a game, the manager would run on with the ‘magic’ sponge, squeeze it on the injured area and you’d run it off. Nowadays kids are running on to the pitch wrapped in cotton wool.

Heading the ball is an essential part of the game. How are kids going to learn this skill if they aren’t allowed to do it?

Surely its safer to teach a child to head the ball properly otherwise the England team in years to come will be full of 50p heads.

So what is supposed to happen when a corner is whipped into the box?

Does everyone wait for it to drop before attempting to play it or are all the kids now going to start trying bicycle kicks instead? Then they’ll start getting stretchered off with broken collar bones and back injuries.

It’s gone too far when the nanny state starts interfering with our national game. I used to love heading the ball when I was a kid and I don’t think it’s done me any harm.

This country’s judicial system really is not fit for purpose

Remember the video last year that went viral of the builder who jumped into a digger and proceeded to smash-up a Travelodge causing £440,000 damage because he was owed wages from when he worked on it.

Well, he has just been jailed for five years and four months.

And the next thing I read was how the teen who stabbed 17-year-old Yousef Makki to death was released from prison just seven months into his sentence. He even filmed himself while on trial making stabbing gestures. It’s ridiculous and shows what a shambles the judicial system in this country is. It’s not fit for purpose.

The lesson here? Money, especially corporate money, is worth more than a life.

Women athletes who need to start boycotting their events

You’ve trained hard all your life, put in the graft, the early mornings and missed social occasions. It was worth it though because you’ve reached the pinnacle of your sport. You’re favourite for a gold medal.

Then, when you survey your fellow competitors, you see someone resembling Giant Haystacks. Fine, if you’re a man. But you’re a woman and a transgender weightlifter has entered the competition.

Yes, it’s difficult for the women who’ve trained so hard but they need to boycott these events until governing bodies come to their senses. They’ll never win again otherwise. It’s not just unfair on the women, but an assault on fairness in sport.