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By AFP 
15h ago
LONDON – England’s World Cup winner Steve Thompson is among a group of former internationals planning legal action against rugby authorities for brain injuries, the law firm leading the case said on Tuesday.
Thompson, who said he does not recall winning the 2003 World Cup, is part of the group, along with fellow former England player Michael Lipman and former Wales international Alix Popham, according to the Rylands law firm.
The planned action is against World Rugby, Rugby Football Union and Welsh Rugby Union, for “failing to protect (the plaintiffs) from the risks caused by concussions.”
Players have also created 15 “commandments” that they believe World Rugby should adopt to make the game safer.
Thompson, Lipman and Popham are part of an eight-player test group, but Richard Boardman of Rylands said it represented more than 100 players, ranging in age from 20 to 50.
Many of whom show symptoms of neurological problems and Boardman said he wanted World Rugby to make immediate changes to address the problem, which is also a growing concern in football.
“The obvious first step is for World Rugby, RFU and WRU to stop denying and acknowledge that there is a problem,” added Boardman.
Thompson, 42, was diagnosed with early-onset dementia and probable CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in November.
“I have no recollection of winning the World Cup in 2003, or of being in Australia for the tournament,” he said.
“Knowing what I know now, I wish I had never become a pro. I went from working on a construction site and training twice a week to training every day, sometimes twice a day.
“A lot of those training sessions were contact sessions using a scrum machine and I was in the thick of things, with all the pressure on me.
“It wasn’t uncommon for me to be stunned, seeing white patches and not knowing where I was for a few seconds. Sometimes I would completely pass out. It was just an accepted part of training.”
Popham, 41, was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, early-onset dementia and probable CTE in April.
He said the diagnosis had turned his world upside down.
“We had an answer why I was struggling so much, but my future seemed so bleak. Mel and I just got married last year, we were hoping to have another child too, but that’s not going to be possible now,” he said. additional.
Lipman, 40, was diagnosed with early-onset dementia and probable CTE three weeks ago.
“This is something I will fight forever and ultimately not win,” he said. “I’m a walking time bomb. I feel like I’m stepping on eggshells with myself.”
Boardman said high-level figures in the game had been discussing the topic of head injuries since at least 1975.
But he added: “Inexplicably, the game’s approach to concussion appears to have become less progressive in the professional era, as evidenced by the mandatory three-week break after a concussion that was reduced to just six days in 2011.
“While health and safety have moved in the wrong direction, the professional game has become a game with more and more collisions as players get heavier, stronger and faster.”
The 15 commandments to make the game safer include the abolition of zero-hour contracts that force players to play when injured in order to receive payment and a limit to the number of contact sessions allowed in training.
French Media Agency
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