For parents the world over, weekend mornings often look the same: standing by the side of a soccer pitch, a basketball court or an American football field.

In Australia’s southern states, it’s often an Aussie rules football oval.

But a few weeks ago, tragedy struck when footballer Nathan Fitzgerald died after copping three hits to his head during a game.

And there’s been story after story of footballers and other elite athletes being diagnosed with probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly, we speak to neuroscientist and Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University of Technology Alan Pearce, about whether we need to be worried about the damage sport does to our brains.

He’s been researching sports-related head injuries for more than two decades and explains that while concussion has been recognised for many years as a traumatic brain injury, understanding of CTE has advanced significantly only in the past decade.

CTE is a neurodegenerative brain disease. And it’s not just in old people. We see this in young people as well.........

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