Dean Windass has revealed he was diagnosed with stage two dementia in January 2025 and said the condition may leave him living with the illness for years, as the former Hull City striker opened up publicly after authorising a former Manchester United defender to speak about his health on television.
The 57-year-old said he wished he had been told he was all clear after the scan arranged with help from John Stiles, the son of 1966 World Cup winner Nobby Stiles and a figure linked to Football Families for Justice. Windass said the diagnosis left him facing an uncertain future, adding that he could be in the same state for half a decade, a decade, or could deteriorate.
He also tied his diagnosis to the way he trained as a player, saying he believed repeated heading drills were a factor. Windass said the problem was not only matchday headers but the constant crossing and finishing work that came with daily training, and he called for fewer heading drills to lower the risk of players developing dementia later in life. “After every session I'd do some finishing, head it in or volley it if they cross it in. I thought nothing of it. You couldn't think about dementia then, but now we can. So let's see if we can stop it at source now and reduce the damage,” he said.
Windass, whose best-known moment came in 2008 when he scored the winning volley for Hull City against Bristol City in the Championship play-off final to send the club into the Premier League, said the diagnosis has also strained his family life. He said he has lost contact with both of his sons earlier this year and made a public appeal for Wrexham's Josh Windass to get in touch after deciding not to tell them about the diagnosis because he did not want to worry them.
“I don't speak to my two kids now, but probably because it's my own fault as well, not telling them about the diagnosis because I didn't want to worry them. Josh is in the public eye,” he said. “I was trying to do the right thing but then it's backfired on me and it's breaking my heart. I put a post on Twitter the other day, 'Please get in touch, Josh,' because of what's gone on and it's killing me.”
The appeal comes as Hull City prepare to face Middlesbrough at Wembley on Saturday, while Josh Windass has built his own career and enjoyed a standout season after signing for Wrexham last summer. The overlap between a father confronting a life-changing diagnosis and a son now playing at the top end of the game gives the story added force, especially after Windass said he wished the scan result had been more reassuring. “I'm not happy about it; I wish they'd said I was all clear and then we wouldn't be having this conversation now. But look, I could go out and get run over by a bus tomorrow,” he said.
