Lawsuits for injuries may carry on rising

Another acclaimed Wales international has cited his own alarming reasons for taking legal action over rugby's brain injury crisis.

His plight, following those of Ryan Jones, Steve Thompson, Carl Hayman and many more, emerge at the end of a week when 185 players issued proceedings against World Rugby, the RFU and the WRU.

The law firm acting for the players, Ryland Legal, allege that the defendants failed “to take any proper steps as the game turned professional to respond to a disregard for player safety and brain health at club and international level”.

The player, who spoke to The Rugby Paper on condition of anonymity, joins a lengthening list of former players diagnosed with early-onset dementia and, in some cases, the degenerative brain disease, CTE which they claim was caused by repeated concussion on the rugby field.

Case: Ryan Jones

He said: “At no time did anyone tell us that repetitive concussion could have a serious affect on our longterm health. Nobody ever said: ‘Look, if you take too many blows to the head there is a danger that you could end up doing damage to your brain. And if that happens, nobody is going to be able to repair it'.

“I got knocked out playing for my club one Saturday. The following Monday morning I took part in full-scale training because that's how it was then.

“I played the following Saturday and got knocked out again. Again, I was training on the Monday afterwards as though nothing had happened. Then, on the Saturday, I was knocked out for the third time in a row. And still we were not warned of the dangers.

“I am one of the 185 taking legal action. It's important to make it clear that this is not a case of the players concerned wanting to take the Unions to the cleaners.

“It's about making the game safer. It's about showing future generations that they can play the game safely.

“The last thing we want to do is stop people from playing rugby.

“The ideal solution is to outlaw tackling above the waist. That would reduce the number of head collisions, speed the game up and clear the way for quicker, smaller players.''

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