Like many people, I watched the BBC and Steve Thompson’s documentary ‘Rugby, Dementia and Me’ with shock and sadness. I am a sports fan, I have followed the story of concussion in sport for many years, have watched the documentaries about the campaign in America with the NFL, and have always been critical of the way professional sport around the world, and in the UK, has handled head injuries. But, nothing has hammered home to me the shameful way governing bodies have treated their athletes like watching and listening to Steve Thompson.

The fact that there is no financial support available for ex players (Rugby League, Rugby Union, or football) affected by brain injuries, and living vastly more challenging lives as a result of them, is disgusting. In America, the NFL established a concussion settlement programme, to financially ‘recompense’ ex players whose brain scans showed CTE. 

In 20/21 the RFU’s income was over £85 million, the richest rugby union in the world. In the same time frame the FA had a turnover of £443 million, with a profit of £132 million. And yet there are ex players, whose lives have been completely changed by devastating brain injuries and medical diagnoses, who are struggling to make ends meet; feeling terrified about their family having to pay for their future care. This cannot be allowed to continue. 

I am calling on the RFU, the RFL, the FA, and any other national governing body whose ex players are disproportionally affected by head and brain injuries, to do the right thing. They cannot turn back the clock and change their sport’s approach to head injuries, preventing these people’s suffering now. But they can change how they are acting now, they can offer financial and medical support to those players whose careers have resulted in such catastrophic diagnoses.