Steve Thompson: Rugby World cup winner cites dementia’s effects

• Steve Thompson has stored away all of his trophies, medals, and mementos.
• Since he began losing memory it is simply tough for him to have reminders.
• Steve claims he is embarrassed by them as he opens the package today.

Steve Thompson have stored away all of his trophies, medals, and mementos. Since he began to lose his memory.

it is simply too tough for him to have reminders nearby.

The former England player claims he is embarrassed by them as he opens the package holding, among other things, his 2003 World Cup medal, MBE, and pictures of him at Buckingham Palace.

On top of that, Thompson regrets what he did. Because if he had, perhaps he wouldn’t currently suffer from early onset dementia, which he attributes to his career’s hundreds of brain injuries.

“If I hadn’t done it, I might not be such a burden on the family,” he says.

This all transpires over the course of a terrifying hour-long Two documentary that follows Thompson.

In another moment, he is mid-sentence while attempting to convey the “out-of-body” experience brought on by his brain fogs. It is quite illustrative.

We see distressing instances as when he misremembers the names of his kids or talks about leaving his automobile running for hours.

Thompson has previously mentioned how having dementia has seriously harmed his life and that he has had suicide thoughts.

He was one of several players who filed a lawsuit against rugby’s regulatory organizations in 2020, accusing them of carelessness.

The movie chronicles everything, from Thompson and his family’s struggle to accept his diagnosis to his offering his support to the campaign to make rugby safer.

The video was made available following the publication of fresh information from a study looking at the relationship between sport and neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s, motor neuron disease (MND), and dementia.

Professor Willie Stewart, a consultant neuropathologist and the study’s principal investigator, urged rugby officials to think about doing away with contact training and limiting rather than increasing the sport’s international schedule.

‘You were just told to get on with it’

Early-onset dementia, which Thompson was identified as having in 2020, is believed to have been brought on most likely by the brain disorder chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to Thompson (CTE).

“This degenerative condition is caused by numerous head strikes, known as sub-concussions,” he adds in the movie.

Thompson encounters Imperial College London’s Prof. Steve Gentleman, a professor of neuropathology, over the course of the movie. According to Prof. Gentleman, CTE is an illness that gets worse over time and has no recognized treatment.

Thompson is certain that the repeated head knocks he had while playing are the cause.

He was a member of the generation that participated in rugby’s professionalization in 1995 and he tells Sports channel that he thinks the concussion and full-contact training standards in place at the time were unsafe. In a single training session, he recounts performing 100 live scrums.

“If you were knocked out and you came back to, you were just told to get on with it,” he says.

“If you had a headache, you were just given headache pills. It wasn’t known as an injury. It would be like: ‘At least you haven’t pulled your hamstring, so you can still run.'”

According to Thompson, in some contact scenarios, players were advised that their heads were their “greatest weapon.”

He claims that the pressure on his head would be “enormous” since, as a hooker, he was in the centre of the 16-man scrum.

“We had a scrummage session where the scrum machine was pegged it into the ground, so it wouldn’t move,” he says.

“Rather than the machine moving a little bit, the pressure’s coming all through your body. Then they break off to go into some rucks, and the pressure just goes all into your head.

“As you come off, you pass out. They’d give me a few seconds to come around and then do it again. You’d have burst blood vessels all around your eyes where you’ve been pushing so hard.”

‘You don’t feel like you deserve to be on this earth’

Thompson talks about how he is now more prone to sadness, mood swings, and forgetfulness.

There are points in the movie when he forgets the names of his kids.

“We’ve got young kids,” says his wife Steph. “It’s sad thinking you might not know them when they’re teenagers.”

According to Thompson, who spoke to private Sports channel, he now need considerably more rest time. He likens his brain to “a really ancient Nokia phone,” which requires “12 hours of charging to get an hour’s activity.”

He also claims that his ailment has caused him to lose employment.

“When I came out and told people, how many people wanted to employ me? To them, I’m broken,” he says.

“If you’ve been diagnosed with dementia and you’re on a work site where someone else gets injured, the insurance companies won’t pay out.

“It’s not until you’re there yourself that you understand. You don’t feel like you deserve to be on this earth, and you don’t feel like you deserve to drag everyone else down.”

Thompson also discusses some of the coping mechanisms his therapist has taught him to use in difficult situations.

“I spray perfume of Steph’s on my arm and stuff,” he says. “Certain pictures on my phone – when I start getting anxious, they pull me back out of it.”

‘There’s not many care homes that will take young men’

Thompson is one of more than 185 players who are bringing negligence claims against the rugby union’s regulatory authorities, saying that participating in the game damaged their brains.

He discusses some of the unfavorable reactions that action provoked in the movie, including being ridiculed by rugby fans.

He is also dissatisfied with how rugby officials, such as the Rugby Football Union (RFU), which oversees the sport in England, have responded.

“There’s been no support from the RFU,” he says, “Since I started the legal action, they’ve even stopped sending me the birthday card I got every year.”

In the event that he requires specialized care, Thompson claims he wants recompense.

“I don’t want my kids to have to give up their lives to look after me,” he says.

“If I have to go into a home, you’re talking £10,000. And there’s not many care homes that will take young men.

“I did my job. I trained as hard as I possibly could. It’s other people’s jobs to look after you.”

Concussion protocol ‘a little start’

Thompson wants rugby to be made safer, including reduced contact training, a longer stand-down period for players recovering from concussions, and a procedure of brain scans, in addition to pursuing compensation.

He asks: “In France, they have heart scans and, if players’ hearts aren’t quite right, they’re not allowed to play. What’s different with a brain?”

In July 2021, an MPs’ probe found that sport had been let to “mark its own homework” in lowering the danger of brain damage. The report also suggested that all sports utilize a common definition of concussion and that every significant sporting event have a professional medical official.

World Rugby suggested reducing full contact training to 15 minutes a week in September of last year.

In comparison, Thompson claims he would spend around 10 hours a week engaging in contact training throughout his playing career.

However, in his opinion, recommendations still need to be made.

“I’m glad they’ve finally done something, it feels like a bit of a joke,” he says in the film, adding: “As it’s not a statutory ruling and only advisory – it can easily be ignored.”

World Rugby increased the concussion stand-down time from six to twelve days in June of this year.

Thompson believes that the sport has further potential.

“It’s a little start, but, to be honest, it needs to be three weeks at least,” he says, adding he would still not feel comfortable allowing his children to play full-contact rugby.

In a statement, World Rugby said: “We embrace innovation and technological advancements to further the identification, management and prevention of head impacts in rugby.

“This proactive commitment has delivered advancements in the laws of the game, revised guidance on contact training load, groundbreaking research using instrumented mouth guards and, in the case of former players, access to brain health consultation and brain health education.”

While this was going on, the RFU claimed that it had “played a crucial part in creating concussion and injury surveillance, concussion testing, and supporting legal reforms to guarantee proactive management of player welfare.”

It added: “We and the Rugby Players’ Association have made contact with all former players to share the work we have and our doing to help players, including the launch last year of an advanced brain health clinic for retired players.”

Thompson spent the most of his professional career with the Northampton Saints, who said: “The safety of the players is a top priority. To guarantee proper head injury care and monitoring, concussion guidelines have been put into place and are being promptly followed.”

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