Dean Windass Reveals Stage Two Dementia Diagnosis at 57

dean windass has revealed he has been diagnosed with stage two dementia, putting the 57-year-old Hull City legend at the center of football’s long-running concern over brain health. The news surfaced in January 2025 after he authorised David May to speak about it publicly.

Windass also said he wants heading drills cut back in training. He tied that concern to his own career, saying the risk was not only match-day headers but the daily work on crossing and finishing.

Windass and the 2008 Final

His name still carries the weight of one goal. Windass scored the winner for Hull City against Bristol City in the 2008 Championship play-off final, when he was 39 years old and Hull won by a solitary goal.

That is the same player now speaking about what comes after football. He said doctors asked him how many balls he headed when he got the diagnosis, and he pointed instead to the repeated drills that filled training sessions.

John Stiles Pushed the Scan

John Stiles, the son of Nobby Stiles, persuaded him to go for a scan. Windass later said he could be in the condition for half a decade, a decade, or it could deteriorate, and he was blunt about his reaction: “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 has also made the case for reducing the amount of heading work young players do now, with the aim of lowering the damage before it starts. His warning came from his own playing routine: “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.”

Josh Windass and Family Strain

The diagnosis has spilled into his family life. On the Clutch 9 podcast, Windass said he does not speak to his two children and said he had not told them about the diagnosis because he did not want to worry them, adding that Josh is in the public eye.

He later posted, “Please get in touch, Josh,” and said one and a half million viewers saw it. Windass said the move backfired and left him heartbroken, turning a private health crisis into a public plea for contact.