In an effort to be healthier I was heading to the gym and, in an effort to be even healthier, I was walking.

I took a short cut through the park and my spirits lifted as I saw a load of kids enjoying a kick-about. They’d even made their own goalposts (not quite jumpers, but other clothing and a few water bottles).

The level of enthusiasm, goodwill between players, not to mention the remarkable skill level for such young footballers, made me stop to watch for several minutes.

Then, completely out of the blue, one mum strode into the middle of the swarm of kids following the ball to remonstrate with, what I presume was, her son and warn him he’d be pulled from the game if he persisted in his behaviour.

Was he fouling other children, swearing, spitting? None of the above - he’d headed the ball.

Now, anyone who’s read my views on not wrapping kids in cotton wool might expect me to side with little Johnny and chastise his interfering mum. But, you’d be wrong.

I’m aware of the FA’s initiative to protect young players from possible brain injury by banning them from heading the ball in training or games and it has to make sense. I’m sure the full extent of dementia (CTE) suffered by footballers regularly heading the ball has yet to be realised.

While I’m on the subject it brought to mind one of my guilty pleasures. I love boxing and watch as many bouts on TV as I can, but when I’ve been challenged on the subject, I can’t, in any way, make a case against it being banned.

Despite the pleasure I derive from it, if the sport was outlawed I really couldn’t argue and there’s certainly no way I’d ever get involved in such madness myself.

Maybe there’s just a small case to be argued for getting your brains bashed about for serious money, but why any amateur boxer puts themselves through such punishment I can’t possibly imagine.

“I love boxing and watch as many bouts on TV as I can, but I can’t, in any way, make a case against it being banned”

And, as if boxing and MMA aren’t crazy enough, the latest madness is the large number of fight videos being filmed for social media channels.

Some of the stuff on vicious videos, crazy clips, instant karma or CCTV idiots is bad enough, but the knockout clips on things like fight videos and streetfighter are truly terrifying – I can’t even imagine the damage they are doing to themselves right now, let alone in the long term.