Should you let your child play rough, contact team sports? 200 stars sue Rugby League

A number of ex-players have been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, probable CTE and other neurological impairments due to the rough nature of the game. Dementia is irreversible at least as of today.
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Rugby: Glory has a dark shadow (Photo: Pixabay)

A number of ex-players have been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, probable CTE and other neurological impairments due to the rough nature of the game. Rugby is a contact team sport. It is played by men and women alike and it is nearly 200 years old. It is so popular that it leads many to bet big on games. It’s global, rough, tough, and there isn’t a lot of protective gear. Why is it so popular? That is because Rugby is bigger than individual players. People who play it love it. They are driven to win with their own abilities and are enthusiastic about progressing.
But the world is just waking up to a possible dark side to the game. And it strikes the players. Irreversibly. And the researchers at the University of South Wales are not the only ones who flipped the cover of glory on Rugby by proposing that Rugby players who suffer multiple concussions could be at risk of developing early onset dementia.
Physiologist Professor Damian Bailey has looked at the potential links between repetitive head injuries and long-term problems in rugby players in later life. His findings suggest that sustaining multiple concussions “accelerates brain ageing and increases the susceptibility to potentially develop early onset dementia”.
Meanwhile, from the UK, the Daily Mail reports that 41-year-old former Wales captain Ryan Jones has become the latest former player to reveal that he is suffering from both early-onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
‘I feel like my world is falling apart,’ Jones, who won 75 Welsh caps and led his country on 33 occasions, told The Sunday Times. ‘I am really scared.’ After being diagnosed with depression Jones said he began to have short-term memory problems and was becoming forgetful.
England’s 2003 World Cup-winning hooker Steve Thompson and ex-Wales back row Alix Popham are among the former players who have been diagnosed with the same brain injuries as Jones. It is thought that 200 ex-rugby players have been diagnosed with dementia and CTE. Nearly 200 rugby union players have filed a concussion lawsuit against the game’s governing bodies and raised an alarm over the ‘ticking time bomb’ of early-onset dementia.
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