Rugby Players’ Long Careers Linked to Degenerative Brain Disease Risk

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A recent research investigation into the neurological health of past rugby players revealed a concerning correlation between the longevity of their time on the field and the probability of exhibiting signs of degenerative brain disease.

Upon examination of 31 brains, willingly donated to science by former players, 21 indicated traces of a condition related to the recurrent trauma of contact sports injuries, specifically, concussion. Remarkably, close to two-thirds of those burdened by chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)—a brain disease congenital to numerous head injuries—competed mainly at the amateur echelon.


The findings have been hailed by researchers as potent ammunition for the campaign for reduced head-on collisions in various sports.

CTE, a seal of severe and progressive head injuries, gradually deteriorates with time, its final stage marked by dementia. Its presence has been noted in individuals with a history of rigorous participation in contact sports such as football, boxing, rugby, and American football, as revealed by post-mortem analyses.

In a rapidly escalating response to the threat posed by CTE, over 300 past participants of football, rugby league and rugby union in the UK are now legally contesting cerebral injuries incurred during their playing years.

The research, steered by the University of Glasgow, took into consideration the brain health of 23 amateur and eight professional retired rugby players who had donated their brains for such novel medical research. Correlating to an average career span of 18 years, there were distinct indications of CTE in 68% of the examined brains. Intriguingly, 13 among those afflicted were club players, not paid professionals.

With each additional annum of active rugby engagement, the study indicated a staggering 14% increase in the likelihood of developing CTE.

The University of Glasgow’s Prof. Willie Stewart, who led this revelatory study, reasonably suspects the consistent thudding, shaking, and rotation of the cranium over several years to be responsible for in-depth cerebral impairment. He equates the impact of a player’s skull during a rugby match to “a spinning bowl of porridge”, with the brain being the vulnerable porridge at the centre.

In a novel approach, World Rugby recently proclaimed that from January 2024, champion-class women players would begin wearing technologically advanced mouthguards to keep an account of head movements, in an attempt to mitigate concussion-related risks.

Professor Stewart, an advocate for minimising head-on collisions both during games and practice sessions, opines that the sport hasn’t made enough strides towards resolving this pressing concern.

The donated brains under scrutiny were dispensed to three distinct brain banks located in Glasgow, the Australian Sports Brain Bank in Sydney, and the Boston University School of Medicine.

A significant portion of the retired players involved in the study, who had an average age around 60 at the time of their deaths, were active rugby sportsmen before the sport turned professional in the year 1995.