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‘I don’t want to kill the game,’ says Steve Thompson. ‘I want it regulated.’
Photograph: Christopher Thomond/the Guardian
Steve Thompson: 'I can't remember winning the World Cup' In an exclusive interview the former England hooker talks about living with dementia, feeling like ‘a bit of meat’ in his career and how, if he could go back, he would not play rugby G Tue 8 Dec 2020 14.00 GMT Last modified on Wed 9 Dec 2020 12.27 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/dec/08/
‘My memories of rugby are made-up, rom people telling me things or seeing pictures or watching clips,’ says Alix Popham. ‘I can’t remember a lot else.’
Photograph: Gareth Phillips/The Guardian
Alix Popham: ‘We knew our bodies would be in bits. We had no clue our brains were' G Tue 8 Dec 2020 19.00 GMT Last modified on Wed 9 Dec 2020 13.08 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/dec/08/
England's blunderbuss backline fails to take flight from forward platform William Fotheringham at Twickenham The Guardian p. 12 Monday November 14, 2005
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2005/nov/14/
Rugby union and dementia: is the sport facing a crisis? G 8 December 2020
Rugby union and dementia: is the sport facing a crisis? Video G 8 December 2020
Steve Thompson, who won the Rugby World Cup with England in 2003, former Wales back-rower Alix Popham and nine other ex-internationals – all under the age of 43 – have launched what could be a landmark legal action against World Rugby, the RFU in England and the Welsh Rugby Union after being diagnosed with early onset dementia.
In revealing and at times harrowing interviews with the Guardian, both Thompson and Popham speak of the challenges they have faced, struggling to remember playing on the world stage and what changes they want to see brought in to the game, as senior reporter Andy Bull examines the links between rugby and dementia.
At the last count, in 2014, there were 1,339 people in the UK from the player's age demographic who had been diagnosed with the condition – or one in every 9,500 - presenting a sobering contrast with these latest cases from the sport.
A spokesperson for the game’s governing body said: 'World Rugby takes player safety very seriously and implements injury-prevention, management and education strategies based on the latest available knowledge, research and evidence.'
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZBrLi608Z8
'I can't remember winning the World Cup,' says Steve Thompson after dementia diagnosis G 8 December 2020
'I can't remember winning the World Cup,' says Steve Thompson after dementia diagnosis Video G 8 December 2020
Former World Cup winner, Steve Thompson, has spoken of at times feeling like ‘a bit of meat’ during his professional career and how, if he could go back, he would not play rugby - nor would he like to see his children pick up the sport.
Now, at the age of 42, Thompson has been diagnosed with early onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease, and says he can no longer remember winning the World Cup, along with forgetting directions, which bits of a book he’s read and what TV shows he’s watched.
Thompson, who is part of a potentially landmark legal action against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union in England and the Welsh Rugby Union, says he 'does not want to kill the game' he still loves, but wants to see the sport transformed to protect players
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btjhK6VNiUE
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links between rugby and early onset dementia UK
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/dec/10/
chronic traumatic encephalopathy CTE UK
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