THE sad news of Chris Nicholl’s passing has been playing on my mind. We all know about the dementia issues Chris struggled with in his later life, likely as a result of heading the football.

Knowing how heading was a part of my game and era, I am a little bit fearful of suffering from similar problems myself if I’m being honest. I can see the discourse around head injuries being something that will rumble on.

There are ideas now about reducing the amount of exposure young players have to heading the ball. We have already lost a number of former Saints to similar issues. Kevin Moore who we lost far too early and Dave Watson who is currently suffering from problems likely as a result of heading the ball.

It’s unfortunate that these issues only seem to be at the forefront of discussion when something tragic happens. Football is just like any other workplace. Why should former players and their families suffer just because you have done your job?

Years ago I watched a film featuring Will Smith called Concussion, which highlighted how American Football had a lot of problems surrounding head injuries. I think this is a ticking time bomb for our own game and the authorities, the FA and the PFA, need to be taking action now.

The sad news about Chris has made this something that I would like to take a look into further. This is something that should be pushed more and I know there are people who do a lot already.

Chris Sutton is one of those. I know he lost his father and has openly spoken about it. The biggest worry is that we still do not fully understand how much of an impact heading and other head trauma will have on people in their later lives.

There was a lack of knowledge about it in my day. I remember hearing a story once that players would head medicine balls to strengthen their necks. When you hear that now it sounds crazy, but back then they would have thought they were at the vanguard of training and sports science.

Lawrie McMenemy signed me as a schoolboy when I was 14 years old which is when I became officially associated with the club. But by the time I joined as an apprentice at 16, straight from school, Lawrie had moved on and Chris was the manager.

He was the first manager I worked under. I have so many fond memories from my time under Chris; some amusing ones, but ultimately at the bottom of all of that, you always felt that he genuinely wanted you to do well.

Especially the young lads that were coming through that he gave chances to. I was amongst a really good group that thrived off the chance we were given. For our group of players to play at the level we wanted to play at was great.

That balance between the youth and experience was a really good one at the time. There was a fearlessness of just going and playing. We went into games knowing that if we conceded two or three goals we were capable of out-firing the opposition with four or five goals.

It was exciting stuff for supporters to watch and for us as players to play in. Chris offered me my first pro contract, the negotiations between me and him during that were a million miles away from what they would be like now.

I had no parent representation or agent. It was just me and him. The appointment was made, I went into his office sat down and there was an awkward silence in the room. After a while, he shoved a piece of paper across the table.

After reading it he looked at me and said: “Franny, there is the pen or there is the door.” I reached for the pen, that was the end of the negotiations. Fast forward to more recent years, it was really sad to see his diagnosis of dementia.

Whenever I have seen him in recent years, he has come to some ex-Saints games that we have played, he was still a genuinely lovely man as he always was.

On Thursday night I was so proud to have attended the Saints Foundation charity dinner at St Mary’s along with my wife Karen. We were absolutely delighted to attend a night that raised £143,840.

It was an awesome effort from everyone there to raise such a huge sum of money for the brilliant work that Saints Foundation do in our city and community. A big congratulations to the team that organised the event. It was a really inspiring evening to attend and I look forward to continuing my work as an ambassador for Saints Foundation.