AIBU to fret about rugby playing family members?

[Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow]

AIBU - DH played for years; relatively high level but not professional. Other family members too.

I can’t help but worry with the increasing reports of brain disease.

But what’s the point of worrying? The damage is done.

Why is this sport even still played as it is?

I have been saying for years how dangerous rugby is and I have put up with being laughed at and pooh poohed . The actual figures of rugby related injury has been silenced and covered up for years, it made me so angry that youngsters and teens were not protected more and the same is true of footballers and headers.It really is a national scandal.

I feel for you Op but there is no point in worrying now...

I am so angry young people are still not being protected. Until recently my niece trained several times a week in football heading the ball. The risks are already known! Like you, I have gone about this for years but hoped I was overreacting

The thing I don’t get is why now? Rugby has been played for years

I think the problems probably occur with pros due to full contact in training, so you are going to bang your head a lot more often than someone just playing in a game every Saturday. Naturally there is also a chance of a severe injury in a game.

Overall it is probably ok, but one could also say why take the risk.

I recon though that rugby, American football (going through similar issues) and heading the ball in soccer will be coming under a lot more scrutiny in the coming years.

eSports might be the way forward!

I agree rugby needs to be made safer, but I don't think there's any point worrying about what your DH has done in the past. I know a teen who suffered an injury in rugby that prevented him playing sport from then on. I also know a family member who was hospitalised a number of times.

You are only hearing about it now....it has been going on for years...professional affected players are being brave to speak up...dissing rugby doesn't make you friends...I applaud them they are real heroes...I hope their voices carry loud and long with their truth. Young men being paralysed, irreversible head injuries, families losing their husbands and dads to dementia in their forties. So glad my ds who plays football for his town avoided headers in training and avoids them in matches. He just said it has always felt wrong to him and something he shouldn't do...

I will not let my kids play because their uncle has a catastrophic injury from rugby. Luckily they are too young to be asked to play yet, but I will be standing firm against it when it starts at school. Absolutely not worth the risk. I used to play, I loved it, but the consequences are severe.

Tag rugby, light contact rugby..fine..there will have to be changes or the sport will die in its present state. Families will catch on and stop their kids playing...

Sorry to hear about your uncle...my ds has a friend in the U18 England squad....such a worry...

YANBU the sport needs a serious overhaul.

Ditto football - heading needs to be banned.

I was thinking the other day I wouldn't let my son play rugby now (well at any sort of higher level.) I mean he's only one so I'm being ridiculous to even think it ...but scary stuff.

I hate my ds playing rugby... luckily it happens infrequently, he prefers football. Rugby petrifies me, I'm terrified he'll get seriously injured.

I play rugby ( although at an amateur level, and contact in the women's game is generally less damaging, given the relative weight and height of players).

I've been following this discussion with interest over the past few weeks, and discussing it with male and female player friends.

One of the big issues, I feel, has been the professionalisation of the game since the 1990s and the demise of the 'amateur internationalist': we have seen the game get progressively faster and the hits get bigger, since players became professionals.

Because money is involved, players are bigger, fitter, faster and stronger and consequently, the game has evolved to match. I think this needs looked at in very stringent detail.

However, at amateur club level, I think things have improved exponentially, with much greater focus on safe tackle technique, for example, and much more stringent adherence to head knock/concussion protocols - 'if in doubt, sit them out'.

Compared to when I started playing in the early 2000s, the quality of training and coaching is do much better.

'So much better'.

Oh, for an edit button...

In the last decade, two life changing injuries have occured at my brother's amateur club. Everyone is doing exactly what they should do, but freak accidents happen.

And in the last decade I know two friends with family members who’ve had life changing injuries from cycling and one who died while running.

All activities carry risk. We can’t remove it altogether.

No, but I really dislike this "all activities carry risk so take no precautions whatsoever" attitude. How many friends have you had in 10 years? More than have played for this club in the same time frame, I imagine (about 30).

I wont let my dc play rugby or head the ball in football. I've notified the schoold in writing.

Its another lung cancer/cigarettes type catastrophe waiting to happen and a lot of parents need to wise up.

When I was in my first year at Uni the women's rugby Captain at my college broke her spine and will never walk again, she was in her final term of her degree must've been 20/21 .

It's really difficult, there are risks with football and personally there are other social aspects around football I don't like. I grew up in a footballing family, even my mum played for the county when she was younger so it's not snobbery, but DH played rugby when we were younger and I found the club much more family friendly and less likely to be trouble at games, although I know not all are the same.
DS is likely going to want to play some kind of sport at some stage, I did growing up; netball, hockey etc and there's a lot to gain from being part of a team. He is only a toddler so swimming lessons and a music group for now, but he's really active, lives jumping, running, climbing and is utterly fearless. His swimming teacher is the head diving coach and keeps making quips about getting him on the board before his next birthday which comes with a whole other set of risks! You don't want to wrap them in cotton wool, but you don't want to knowingly expose them to harm either......

Where did I see take no precautions whatsoever?

Both my kids play and as a poster up thread said, the rules and regulations have changed hugely over the last 10 years. They are taking precautions!

There are the individual catastrophic ink tours on one hand —always known about and a distaste for that person .

But we are talking about something that is an inherent part of the game (as it is for boxing or headers in football). Trauma to the body is part of the game - intrinsic to how it is played. How can we let this continue as it is?

I think there is a distinct contrast between that and, say, cycling or skiing where the sport is ok unless you are unlucky enough to have a catastrophic accident

Professional rugby players saying they never consented to this unknown risk when they consented to the risk of dying and permanent disablement may struggle with a legal claim though there will probably be a settlement.

Regarding rugby 'dying', rugby players currently consent to a risk of dying. Other sports like horse riding, boxing, swimming, skiing, mountaineering and so on have significant risk profiles, arguably in excess of rugby so it appears unlikely rugby will 'die'.

Young people are not known for their rational view of risk and decision-making.

Yes, but the point is that even with doing everything right, an inch to far this way or a touch too hard that way and someone's life has changed forever. Because the risk is an inherent part of the game in a way that isn't true for other commom sports.

The good thing is that RFU know the risks and in a post Matt Hampson era, are good at financially supporting the unfortunate ones, to help them make the best of what they have left.

I have been saying for years how dangerous rugby is and I have put up with being laughed at and pooh poohed . The actual figures of rugby related injury has been silenced and covered up for years, it made me so angry that youngsters and teens were not protected more and the same is true of footballers and headers.It really is a national scandal.

What you (and others in the thread) are talking about is not the same kind of injury that is in the news at the moment. The disease (CTE) only became known to medical science in 2005. See the movie "Concussion" starring Will Smith.

CTE is something that can only be diagnosed by performing an autopsy after death. No-one has been routinely performing autopsies on deceased rugby players, so there haven't been any figures for anyone to hide. (Rugby only went professional in 1996, so most of the players likely to be affected haven't died yet, anyway.)

(My qualifications for commenting are that I watch rugby on TV and have seen the aforementioned movie...)

NHS page on the disease:-

www.nhs.uk/conditions/chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy/

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive brain condition that's thought to be caused by repeated blows to the head and repeated episodes of concussion.

It's particularly associated with contact sports, such as boxing or American football. Most of the available studies are based on ex-athletes.

CTE was previously known as "punch drunk" syndrome and dementia pugilistica. But these terms are no longer used because it's now known that the condition is not limited to ex-boxers.

There's still some debate about how common CTE is and how it should be diagnosed.

Currently, only supportive treatments are available and research is focused on finding a reliable technique to diagnose the condition

I strongly suspect that the reason for this, is to do with the game turning professional in the 90s. Prior to this even national players had day jobs and as such weeknight training would be far less strenuous than now. Having watched interviews from many professional players, they appear to be doing high contact training every day, so it has gone from 80 minutes of high contact on a Saturday, to a whole week of this. Given you can get brain damage from someone pushing your abdomen, it is the frequency, along with the fact that players are so well conditioned, that has led to this increase. Unless you stop the contact, this damage wont stop, however the amount of training by professionals an be limited. Unless your family members are professional players, it is more the broken bones that are likely to occur, but I dont really see how you can make the 80 minutes on the pitch intrinsically more safe.