‘We are damaging players’ brains again and again’ says former World Rugby medical adviser

Former Wales back-row Alix Popham is one of more than 200 former stars involved in a lawsuit against the game's authorities after he was diagnosed with early-onset dementia.

CHRIS FOY: England's stricken World Cup-winning hero, Steve Thompson, has delivered a damning verdict on the Owen Farrell disciplinary verdict, claiming that 'it reeks of corruption'.

The former Wales international was diagnosed in 2020 and has been raising money and awareness to support people with sports-related brain injuries ever since. | ITV News Wales

In a sample of 44 elite rugby players, 23 per cent had abnormalities in brain structure, specifically in white matter and blood vessels of the brain, experts in London report.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY ALEX BYWATER: Hayman won All Blacks 45 caps as a powerful prop, but life today couldn't be more different from his time in rugby.

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Doddie Weir has been bravely battling Motor Neurone Disease since 2017 with his wife Kathy describing him as an 'inspirational force of nature'

Vickery is among three England World Cup winners forming part of the case against World Rugby, England's Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU).

Having set up Head For Change the former Wales flanker, who is living with early onset dementia, is helping others using group exercise

Drake Foundation hopes World Cup winner’s film leads to a much-needed reduction in the cumulative intensity of impacts

A major study of former Scottish international rugby union players found they were more than twice as likely to get dementia and had a 15-fold increased risk of motor neurone disease.

'They fixed her broken bones but turned their backs on her broken brain.'

Ian Gough is one of 300 players suing rugby's governing bodies over concussion

LIZ PERKINS AND ALEX BYWATER: Former rugby stars suffering from early onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) have been given hope for the future.

5,000 pages of medical records submitted ahead of proceedings on Friday

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: From white spots to yellow dots, the broken giant is drawing an awful line. For two hours he has been looking at his old life and the new.

The Rugby Football Union have already announced a new law change to the tackle height in age grade rugby in England for this season

EXCLUSIVE BY ALEX BYWATER: In a newsletter to its members, the RPA highlights the number of former players who would consider seeking support with their brain health and where they can find it.

Former Wales international Alix Popham plans to raise both awareness of and funds to support brain health in sport by taking part in a charity bike ride from Cardiff to Edinburgh this month.

The number of former rugby union players joining legal action against the game's authorities over head injuries is growing by an average of 10 each month, Mail Sport can reveal.

Unless the rugby authorities seize the problem of traumatic head injuries "by the scruff of the neck" parents will not allow their children to play the sport, former Wales flanker Alix Popham told...

Legal action brought by 268 players faces a day of reckoning on Friday while the sport continues to wrestle with the repercussions of head trauma

The brains of Australian football players are still recovering 12 days after they are concussed according to a Monash University study of amateur players.

The former Ireland rugby international talks physical and mental damage he suffered from playing professional rugby during a ‘Wild West’ period and explains why he has joined legal proceedings...