Former Wales back-rower, Alix Popham, was diagnosed with early onset dementia this year aged 40. He says he is frustrated the game he still loves has not made changes to make the sport safer for current players.
Popham’s last Test match was Wales against England at Twickenham in 2008, the first match of the famous grand slam. He says he watched it in lockdown with his wife Mel and their three kids and knows he was part of the team, that Wales won, but has ‘no recollection of being in the game.’
Popham is one of eleven former players launching legal action against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union in England and the Welsh Rugby Union over what they claim ‘amounts to negligence in the failure to protect them from brain injury’.
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.’
Rugby union and dementia: is the sport facing a crisis? – video explainer
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