Former rugby union player Alix Popham claimed that the only things he can remember about playing in big games is jerseys and medals.
The ex-Wales flanker, who had a 14-year professional career, was diagnosed with early onset dementia at the age of 40.
He told Newsnight he believed this diagnosis was due to head injuries he had sustained during his rugby career.
Sub-concussive hits, such as those that occur when your brain “thump around inside your skull on every hit,” include those that occur when you are struck both in the body and the head, are described as “any contact.”
He is one of two former rugby players who has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia and is urging the sport’s governing bodies to end their legal battle with ex-players in court.
More than 560 former players are suing the sport’s governing bodies for the impact of head collisions during their career.
Popham said that he had jerseys on the wall and medals to show from big games, “but memories, vivid memories of the scoreline, the weather, the stadium, I’ve got no recollection of that”.
He added that, despite suffering a traumatic brain injury and ending up in a hospital, he could not recall meeting Nelson Mandela before playing in one game in South Africa in 2003.
Really, two or three weeks of suspension is not enough.
The Head for Change charity, founded by Popham to help those who have brain injuries brought on by sports, was founded.
A new 20-minute red card punishment is being tried during the Six Nations tournament, where a player is expelled from the game but the team then returns to its full complement after that time.
But Dr Willie Stewart, a world-leading expert on brain injury, told Newsnight the new rule “places the spectacle of the game ahead of player’s brains”.
He claimed that he did not believe that a player’s 20-minute suspension would constitute sufficient punishment for a potentially dangerous tackle that could lead to brain damage.
Popham advocated for a six- to eight-week red card punishment, “so you learn and you don’t make that same mistake.”
Popham, who played in two World Cups for Wales, told Newsnight his initial symptoms of early onset dementia included “losing my temper over, really, nothing” and being unable to recall “important conversations” with his wife shortly after.
He frequently lost his way of thinking during conversations and had severe headaches.
When he was diagnosed, Mel Popham and her husband had to make the difficult choice to not attempt a second child.
It was incredibly frightful.
Reflecting on Popham’s diagnosis, Mel said: “We had everything going for us. We’d recently got married, had Darcy, living in a house we loved and our world was just changing.
” It was really frightening. “
When it came to player welfare, the couple claimed they preferred to see “full words” rather than action.
Popham remarked on the effects of his career injuries, saying, “I wish I knew then what I know now because you wouldn’t carry on when you were seeing stars.”
“You would slam yourself,” he said. You would be honest to the coaches, the physios”.
Ian Buckett, a former rugby player from Wales, passed away last year at the age of 56 from dementia.
He was found to have had a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which is linked with repeated blows to the head but can only be diagnosed after death.
Chris Simpson-Daniel, a former England youth international, was diagnosed with early-onset dementia in 2022 at the age of 43.
Simpson-Daniel told Newsnight he had attempted to take his own life on two occasions.
The first priority for us is “player welfare.”
World Rugby declared to the BBC that the 20-minute red card punishment was a trial, and that player welfare was their top priority.
It requested information from anyone who had concerns about the safety of the facility.
A spokesperson for World Rugby claimed that they would not hesitate to halt the trial because it had already done so with other trials in the past if it was proven to have detrimental effects on players’ welfare.
In a joint statement regarding the legal action, World Rugby, the RFU and WRU said: “Whilst ongoing legal actions prevents us from engaging directly, we are always saddened to hear Alix, Mel and Chris’s stories.
” Player welfare has long been World Rugby’s number one priority. “
It added that the medical practices used were consistently consistent with scientific consensus.
Source: BBC
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