Here's a strange story.Lou Gehrig's disease is cutting a swath through a generation of Italian players, including the former Genoa captain Gianluca Signorini and former Como midfielder Adriano Lombardi. The latest sufferer is the former Milan, Fiorentina and Italy striker Stefano Borgonovo.Now paralysed and speaking with a computer-generated voice, Borgonovo is raising funds for research into the nerve-wasting condition known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or more commonly Lou Gehrig's disease after the US baseball player who died of it in 1941.
"We need to find out about this," said Celeste Pin, Borgonovo's former room-mate at Fiorentina. "It is striking down footballers, which does not leave you feeling very serene."
One theory being floated is that the cause may be pesticides and fertilisers used in the 80s and 90s. Fifty one professional and amateur players have now died from it, six times the average in the general population.That's some mystery now.
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