Pending legal action on rugby and dementia
By Plympton Chief
July 26 2022
This from the Tele this morning. Keithbar posted on our forum how he fears for contact sports. I imagine most of us do without being "snowflakes" with the prospect of players taking their own lives. Read on and consider!
Rugby union has been warned it must change to protect its players “otherwise the sport will die” after more than 185 players launched legal proceedings against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and Welsh Rugby Union.
Telegraph Sport can reveal new details of the lawsuit that was due to be filed at court on Monday on behalf of a group of professional and semi-professional players including Alix Popham, the former Wales international, as part of the biggest 'class action' lawsuit outside of the United States.
Popham, who was diagnosed with early onset dementia aged just 40 years old, has urged governing bodies to take immediate action to protect players from debilitating brain injuries after claiming they were negligent for failing to protect players.
Telegraph Sport can also reveal that the proceedings issued to the court by Rylands Law, representing the players, include:
- Players ranging from as young as their 20s to their 60s
- Another 50 players are going through testing or waiting for results with around two joining the legal proceedings every week
- Fears players will take their own lives if not supported
- Female players are now confirmed as part of the claimants
- As many as "a few dozen" amateur rugby players are also involved
- Fears include how the NHS will cope with taking care of high numbers of retired professional athletes in middle age suffering from early onset dementia
Twenty players contacted brain charity Head For Change after former Wales captain Ryan Jones revealed last week that he is suffering from early onset dementia, aged 41.
Health conditions among the group of claimants range from those suffering with more extreme cases of Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinson's and probably moderate Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), with the latter only confirmed following post-mortem.
The least extreme cases include players suffering from mild post-concussion syndrome, which can last for weeks, months or longer, while others in between suffer from epilepsy and the start of progressive neurodegenerative disease such as early onset dementia.
Symptoms include chronic depression, suicidal thoughts and attempts, aggression, addiction to alcohol and drugs as a result of their brain injuries, and a worsening memory and inability to concentrate.
"It's all pretty grim, to be honest, and quite consistent across the board," said Richard Boardman, of Rylands Law.
"From our point of view, the ideal outcome is to get damages for the players and their young families to make sure they are looked after, and then ensure they have that clinical support in place. At the moment there is a considerable vacuum once a player has been diagnosed.
"The poor NHS is not set up for hundreds if not thousands of otherwise fit sportsmen in their 30s and 40s with dementia, in terms of how to deal with them.
"We're trying to work with foundations and charities and some kind clinicians who are helping us to ensure that we catch particularly the guys in the worst conditions, because they are in a bad way and they do need support. We don't want any of them to kill themselves.
"For this great sport to continue for another 100 years-plus, we have to accept that the brain is a delicate organ which needs heightened protection, and as a sport we have to err on the side of caution. Otherwise all brains, no matter what level you play at, are going to be impacted."
Popham, now 42, won 33 caps for Wales but was diagnosed with early onset dementia 10 years after his retirement, when doctors estimated his brain had suffered up to 100,000 sub-concussions during 14 years of playing professionally. He now runs the brain charity Head For Change.
"There have been cases where I have spoken to family members of players who have taken their lives because of this," Popham told Telegraph Sport, citing Wales' recent intense training sessions before their tour of South Africa as an example of how player welfare can improve.
"Rugby really needs to be reset and needs to be Rugby 2.0. The seasons need to be half what they are," Popham added.
"There is a hell of a lot of evidence that contact sport has caused damage to players' brains. It's a terrible image for the sport, for mums and dads who are thinking of sending their kids to rugby there is a huge amount that needs to be changed to make it as safe as possible."
"For me, I still love rugby. We just need to draw a line in the sand with what has gone wrong. I'd have more respect for [World Rugby, RFU, WRU] if they put their hand up and said 'yep, we made a mistake and here's what we are going to do now'. Because otherwise the sport will die. And we don't want that."
Progressive Rugby, the rugby union lobby group, also announced on Monday that they are in the process of "finalising a comprehensive list of player welfare critical requirements which will be submitted to World Rugby".
"We believe delay is no longer an option and that radical action must be taken as a matter of urgency to ensure rugby union's reputation isn't damaged beyond repair," the group added. Those proposed changes include a mandatory limit on contact in training, improving pitchside diagnostic tools, reducing the number of non-injury substitutions, and extending the return-to-play for a concussion.
World Rugby, the RFU and WRU responded on Monday by saying: “We care deeply about all our players, including former players, and never stand still when it comes to welfare. Our strategies to prevent, identify and manage head injuries are driven by a passion to safeguard our players and founded on the latest science, evidence and independent expert guidance.”
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[www.frontiersin.org]
It is a very recently published article on the relationship between repetitive brain injury and chronic brain damage. It is a long read but a good read.
Bottom line; whilst the research into this topic is imperfect there is enough evidence to strongly suggest a causal relationship between repetitive brain injury and brain damage and the authors suggest that action be taken immediately (More research to fill in gaps in knowledge, education to allow informed participation and changes to how high impact sports are played) to reduce exposure, especially in children.
IMHO it is difficult to read material such as this and not come to the conclusion that rugby (and other high impact sports) will have to change markedly to reduce both the number and severity of impacts. I'm not sure what sort of game will be left but the current equation of ever bigger, ever faster, ever more substitutes needs to be addressed or else we will simply multiply the casualties going forward.
[www.express.co.uk]
Quote:NEIL SQUIRES - Daily Express
"We have all taken the benefits and the good side of what the game offered when we played it and we all knew the risks," said Cueto.
"Even if we now know that what was happening 10 or 15 years ago was wrong, you can’t try people on what they didn’t know at the time. If Thommo genuinely can’t remember the World Cup final, that has to be so frightening, but what doesn’t sit well with me is the blame game associated with this.
"The medics in club and international rugby only ever had our best interests at heart. They were the ones telling us not to play. I’d never want those guys to think the finger was being pointed at them. Rather than trying to go back and blame someone it would surely be better to keep this out of court and have a collaborative approach.
"This is going to cost hundreds of thousands if not millions in court fees. That is money which could be used so much better to support this group of lads. Once the medical proof is there, why can’t something be put in place by the governing bodies for a support programme to be put together?"
The claimants cite a failure by World Rugby, the RFU and the WRU to exercise their duty of care after a series of early-onset dementia diagnoses which they trace back to the game. However Cueto, who won 55 England caps and played in the 2007 World Cup final, says his generation were sometimes their own worst enemies.
"I remember playing games at Twickenham for England and being unable to focus on the person in front of me. Their face and body would just be a blur," he said. "My peripheral vision was fine but I couldn’t see clearly what was in front of me.
"Someone would put a high ball up and I would have to look two or three metres to the left or right of it to be able to see it to catch it. I was obviously concussed but I was still on the field. I wouldn’t tell the medics because I would do anything to stay on. That is part of your make-up as an international athlete."
Problem for the defence is that proving any of this about the claimants is going to be almost impossible unless they have said what Cueto did above. Hence why I have issues with these concussion lawsuits as I don't believe they really solve anything but are also just as much on the players as they are on the governing body.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:27:08:49:06 by Thomas Hawk.
Quote:Lowerwatha
You can’t help thinking that the biggest beneficiaries of the legal action will be the lawyers.
This is exactly my thoughts. As I said the problem is that its very hard to defend and convince a judge against a suit like this. It is therefore a major win for those bringing the suit not only financially, but also for prestige.
World Rugby to their credit has always listened to the Doctors on this issue but protocols weren't what they are now, 10-15 years ago. This is simply because its a still evolving science and we don't know what we know now about CTE and its link to dementia and I don't think you can hold World Rugby responsible for that. But once again we can thank our overly-litigious colonial cousins for suits like this.
Quote:Lowerwatha
You can’t help thinking that the biggest beneficiaries of the legal action will be the lawyers. As Cueto says players have been their own worst enemies in the past because they were desperate to play on. A while back Austin Healey said in his column that he had played on when concussed and then faked the protocols to play in the next game.
Is it me or should the protocols not be that easy to fake?
My thoughts exactly, TH. Hidden behind the apparent need to set a precedent.
In Rob we trust.
By the way - cream on first. There's nothing to debate.