You can be the biggest, meanest and toughest player on the playing field, but when it comes to a brain injury every player is as fragile as the next.
For those of you who have been following the court case with interest will know that not much has moved forward with the latest hearing that took place on the 1st December. Over 300 ex players are involved with many more now coming forward to join and this looks like it will sadly be involving far more players than expected. I see this 300 number doubling if not tripling over the next 6 months as ex players realise what they have is not just a simple loss of memory due to old age when you are in your 30's,40's or 50's.
Everyone's symptoms will be different from mild to extreme and will only show themselves later in life many years after you stopped playing. That is the norm with a few exceptions who stopped playing due to early dementia when they were in their early 30"s. Those are the ones this case should be about as the extreme cases are the most worrying.
The idea of this hearing was to bundle the case as one group litigation and not on an individual basis. For that to happen the court has asked for medical records of those affected to be gathered for their next hearing in April/May next year.
The problem with this now is many players may not have a detailed history of this hidden injury and most likely has slowly crept into their lives. When you play rugby you knew that you were risking broken bones and a bruised body, but there was no talk of permanent brain damage.
As an ex player having a brain injury was never mentioned with the top injury one was trying to avoid being a broken neck. The obvious risks were known by every player and personally I knew through common sense bashing your head frequently cannot be good for you over a lengthy career.
Mr Pure - "We can't apply what we know now, to what we didn't know then."
This is also very true, but considering former ex NFL players settled a case for $1 billion you would have to be a complete idiot to think your sport was immune from brain damage. Rugby is far more physical than the NFL and ask any rugby player what they think of the pussy outfits. If you are wearing a helmet and still suffering from brain damage it is not the hit, but the whipping action of your skull moving the brain around inside bringing it into contact with your skull. There is not much you can protect from that aspect of play and no protective clothing will do you any good.
Obviously the Rugby governing body is going to fight this and I do not see a positive outcome for the players here. I am not alone with this thought and do not see how they can win this case successfully. You cannot plead ignorance and possibly the only angle you could fight this case is by highlighting the players were not fully informed of the risks. Maybe bashing your head over 14 or 15 years is not that obvious for some people and they needed to be told.
Back in 2005 the onset of early dementia and CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) were highlighted by a certain Dr. Bennet Omalu. Rugby's Governing body only introduced head injury assessments during matches in 2015. they were aware along with the players and nothing was done for 10 years.
During the 1990's when I played semi professional rugby before it became professional if you were concussed severely you sat out for 7 days. Most players played on unless they couldn't see straight or walk properly or in some cases started vomiting. The idea that this is all new is a joke and has been going on for decades.
In this case I think both parties are too blame for the predicament they find themselves in and they need to find a way forward. Neither side can blame each other as ignorance and stupidity is not an excuse.
