I guess these guys will spend the rest of their lives drugged into a stupor
If some or any of these conditions reported by players turn out to be degenerative, that storm in the distance is heading rugby’s way. When the story broke of the crisis in 2020, I wrote about my family’s own experience with early-onset dementia. In 2019, after years of escalating difficulties with memory, executive function and emotional ability, my wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the age of 49.
In October last year, after a seizure in the small hours one morning, she was taken to hospital and thence to a nursing home, where she now requires full-time care. The search for a home for her was already under way by then, but the vast majority were unable to take her.
The underlying issue, sometimes not even unspoken, is the very real responsibility homes have for their residents, who are frail and vulnerable. They could not accommodate someone in her early 50s known to exhibit what is euphemistically known as “challenging behaviour”.
My wife is closer to five foot than six and she did not play international rugby. If she is too much for most homes to take on, how many will consider someone who does answer to that description?
She suffers from a rare and aggressive form of Alzheimer’s, which is different from CTE. Her deterioration has been swift and unanswerable. There is every chance the diagnosed players will follow a less precipitous decline, which might respond to treatment and good living, if they follow a decline at all. But for those who do turn out to have CTE, which is by definition degenerative, the need to find accommodation will be as much about the safety of their families as a question of practicality.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/ ... ing-itself
