Laravel: including header and footer files not working

I want to include the header and footer file in my index.blade.php. I put all my header content in header.blade.php file and footer content in footer.blade.php file. Following is my Controller:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class GeneralController extends Controller
{


    public function header()
    {
        return view('header');
    }

     public function footer()
    {
        return view('footer');
    }

    public function index()
    {
        $this->header();
        return view('index');
        $this->footer();
    }   
}

I am calling the header function before loading the main content. and footer file after loading the main content. I was doing this in Codeigniter and it worked fine there. but it is not working in Laravel. Please Help.

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