OXFORD City Football Club is pressing ahead with plans for a new artificial pitch amid claims in the media the proposed 3G surface could cause cancer.

The Marsh Lane club’s planning application for a new 3G turf to replace its first team’s pitch was made public by Oxford City Council on Monday.

The same day, former NHS boss Nigel Maguire claimed in national media that rubber pellets in the artificial turf had contributed to his son Lewis contracting Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

The former NHS Cumbria chief executive claimed his son – a goalkeeper who regularly trained on 3G surfaces for four or five years – often ingested the pellets and they were rubbed into cuts and grazes.

But the Football Association (FA) has stood by industry-standard specifications and said it is satisfied the pitches are safe.

Oxford City chairman Brian Cox has now said the National League South club could only go by what the FA and the league advised.

He said: “I have seen these claims in the papers and I know it stems from research in America, but the FA has said its safe and there’s nothing to stop us.

“The big thing is that the National League have passed the use of 3G pitches and they seem to think that League 2 will accept them too.”

Research in America claimed the pellets, made from rubber tyres, could cause cancer, but numerous other studies have concluded there was no risk.

Oxford City now hope to have their new 3G pitch completed in August. The club already has one full-size 3G pitch in use.