Two more named in Players' dementia action

The legal action against rugby union’s authorities took a decisive step forward on Thursday when the firm representing nine players diagnosed with long-term brain injuries sent pre-action letters of claim to World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union. Rylands Law also revealed the identities of two more of the nine players involved in the test cases alongside Steve Thompson, Alix Popham and Michael Lipman. They are the former Wales under-20 centre Adam Hughes and the former England under-21 back-row Neil Spence.

The development comes as the former England captain Dylan Hartley spoke out about the lack of teaching in rugby around the risk of dementia. “From when I started until last week, I didn’t know dementia was a potential outcome for any rugby player,” Hartley said on RugbyPass’ Offload podcast. “That wasn’t educated or taught to us.” Hartley admitted he is having his “own problems” with concussion in retirement, but said he does not want to reveal more about them.

Neil Spence during his playing career at Rotherham.
‘A side of me is lost for ever’: two more rugby players on their brain injuries

Hughes, 30, is the youngest player involved in the action so far. He has been diagnosed with “having brain injuries and post-concussion symptoms”, and has been told he is on a “similar medical trajectory” to Popham, Lipman, Thompson and Spence, who have all been diagnosed with early-onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Hughes played for the Dragons, Bristol and Exeter between 2010-18, and his experience throws doubt on the argument that the game has become significantly safer in the past decade.

Hughes was forced to retire at the age of 28 after a particularly severe concussion and is now working as a financial adviser. “It was just one head knock too many. I was finding it more and more difficult to recover from each and every bang to the head,” he said. He reports being knocked out eight times in his career. “At first it was the bigger concussions where I was completely knocked out that took me ages to recover from then over the time even the smaller ones started to have an impact. For the sake of my health, I had to bring it to a halt.”

One of Hughes’s former coaches, Rob Baxter at Exeter, said last week the game’s approach to head injuries has improved so much in the years since Thompson, Lipman and Popham retired that “there’s almost very little value in trying to compare the two”. Hughes, who played for the Chiefs in 2014-15, told a different story. “For me, I think the biggest issue around concussions was attitude. It was often treated like a weakness if you don’t dust yourself down and carry on.”

He added that “the game still has a very long way to go in terms of education about concussion”.

Adam Hughes (left), pictured in action for Dragons in 2016, retired age 28 after a severe concussion.
Adam Hughes (left), pictured in action for Dragons in 2016, retired age 28 after a severe concussion. Photograph: Huw Evans/Shutterstock

Four more players involved in the test cases have decided to remain anonymous. Rylands Law is already representing around 100 former rugby players and said 30 more have been in contact since the involvement of Thompson, Popham and Lipman was revealed by the Guardian last week.

In a statement World Rugby, the RFU and the WRU said: “We have been deeply saddened to hear the brave personal accounts from former players. Rugby is a contact sport and while there is an element of risk to playing any sport, rugby takes player welfare extremely seriously and it continues to be our number one priority. As a result of scientific knowledge improving, rugby has developed its approach to concussion surveillance, education, management and prevention across the whole game.

“We have implemented coach, referee and player education and best-practice protocols across the game and rugby’s approach to head injury assessments and concussion protocols has been recognised and led to many other team sports accepting our guidance. We will continue to use medical evidence and research to keep evolving our approach.”

Sir Bill Beaumont, the chairman of World Rugby, added: “As a player who retired on medical advice in the early 1980s, I care deeply about the welfare of all players. As an administrator, I will do all I can to maintain the confidence and wellbeing of those who play the game.”

The pre-action letters of claim set out the broad allegations upon which the cases are based. They state the governing bodies had a duty “to take such steps and to devise and implement such rules and regulations as were required in order to remove, reduce or minimise the risks of permanent brain damage as a consequence of the known and foreseeable risk of concussive and sub-concussive injuries”.

They also allege the risks of concussions and sub-concussive injuries were “known and foreseeable”, listing 24 failures on the part of World Rugby, RFU and WRU. The governing bodies have a maximum of three months from the date of acknowledgment of the letters of claim to provide their initial responses.

‘A side of me is lost for ever’: two more rugby players on their brain injuries

Adam Hughes and Neil Spence are the latest former players to be named in the legal action against rugby union authorities.

Adam Hughes

At 30 years of age, Hughes is the youngest of the players to go public. His diagnosis is thus different: brain injuries and post-concussion syndrome, rather than dementia with probable CTE, but the neurologists have told him he is on the same path as the others. If so – and little is certain with the brain – it is only a matter of time.

 
 
Adam Hughes.
 
 

Hughes was a muscular, elusive utility back, whose preferred position was centre. He represented Wales throughout the age groups and made his debut for the Dragons, in Newport, the town of his birth, as a 20-year-old in 2010. He quickly established himself and was voted player of the year in his first full season.

In 2014 he moved to Bristol mid-season, before signing a two-year deal with Exeter that summer. He was unable to establish himself at the Chiefs and returned to the Dragons, initially on loan, in October 2015. He retired because of his brain injuries in 2018, having played 119 times for them.

His story, that of a rising star whose career started to falter, no doubt in part because of his concussions, is poignant, revealing much about the typical lot of a professional player. “For me, I think the biggest issue around concussions was attitude,” he says. “It was often treated like a weakness if you don’t dust yourself down and carry on. So naturally you see many players expert at just getting up and carrying on, regardless of how they feel. Ultimately, it’s their job, and no player wants to lose their job.”

Hughes is now a financial advisor. He is unable to pursue his ambition to be a professional pilot, for which he had gained a licence. Motion sickness is one of his symptoms, which prevents him flying. He also referees and is quick to react when he sees a head injury but notes with alarm the occasional abuse from coaches when he sends a potentially concussed player from the field.

Neil Spence

He played age-group rugby for England as an openside flanker, before spending his career at Leicester, Gloucester and Rotherham, making 32 Premiership appearances for the latter in seasons 2000-01 and 2003-04. He also played in France and represented Yorkshire, twice winning the county championship with them.

He was an RFU community coach for nearly 10 years and now teaches PE and French in a secondary school. He describes symptoms of cognitive decline that date back to 2012. One early example saw him leave home to pick up his kids from nursery but drive on towards one of the schools he was coaching at to set up a session. As he did, it dawned on him no one was there. It was half-term. Only then did he remember he was meant to be picking up his children.

Other typical symptoms include problems with his speech, confusion and uncertainty in the car and extreme mood swings. “I used to be the life and soul of the party,” he says, “but I feel that side of me is lost for ever.”

The uncertainty of his prognosis also eats away at him. He speaks of relief at the diagnosis but great fear over the future. “My neurologist said I could get quite bad over the next 10 years or it could be a steady decline over the next 30. The thought of not seeing my children grow up, not seeing my grandchildren or walking my daughter down the aisle is somewhat unbearable.”

Back to all posts