Motor neurone worry hangs over Italian game

By Paul Virgo

ROME (Reuters) - Stefano Borgonovo was guest of honor at Wednesday's friendly between former clubs Fiorentina and AC Milan, though he was unable to play.

Borgonovo moved Italians last month when he revealed that he was suffering from the most common form of motor neurone disease -- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

The 44-year-old former striker's announcement, given from a wheelchair through a computer-generated voice after he lost the power of speech, sent a shiver of dread through generations of past and present Italian footballers.

Statistics showing that there are far more cases of ALS among ex-professional footballers in Italy than among the general public have prompted Turin prosecutors to investigate dozens of deaths from the condition.

"The latest evidence shows that there are six times as many ALS deaths among soccer players as for the rest of the population," prosecuting magistrate Raffaele Guariniello told Sky television.

"We did comparisons with other sports -- cyclists, basketball and volleyball players. Not a single case emerged."

ALS claimed the life of ex-Genoa captain Gianluca Signorini at the age of 42 in 2002.

Known as Lou Gehrig's disease in the United States after the baseball great it killed in 1941, ALS attacks the motor neurons of the brain and spinal cord, causing swift muscle degeneration.

In the general population there are around 2.5 cases per 100,000 people a year.

"If you look at the statistics for the number of players affected by ALS, there is reason to be worried," Italy captain and Real Madrid defender Fabio Cannavaro told reporters last month.

POSSIBLE CAUSES

When news of the mysteriously high ALS prevalence in Italian football came to light, many people's thoughts turned immediately to doping.

Guariniello said this was just one of the possible causes he was looking at, however.

"The hypotheses we are working most on are the use of doping substances, the cumulative trauma of being hit in the legs or heading the ball and exposure to the toxic substances used to maintain pitches," he said.

The biological mechanisms that cause the disease are only partially understood, there is no cure and sufferers usually die between two and five years after contracting it.