Rugby Union has announced plans for dealing with head injuries and permanent brain damage among players at all levels. The move follows high profile cases in football. Studies have identified Rugby as among the most violent games in which impact injuries lead to permanent damage and eventually contributing to mortalities.
Such cases have drawn attention to the victims as well as to well-publicised fund-raising memorial events.
Doddie Weir, the Scottish international, died recently in November after contacting motor neurone disease and raised millions for research into the condition.
His efforts were supported by remarkable charity events by a Rugby international Keven Sinfield. His recent event involved him running 40 miles a day for seven consecutive days starting from Scottish Rugby union headquarters at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, and ending at Old Trafford for the Rugby League cup final.
Contact sports inevitably risk brain damage. The risks provide considerable levels of concern and dilemmas of medical specialists often themselves participants earlier in their careers. It seems to me the charity events are wonderful ways of raising public awareness about the consequences of sporting injuries. I haven’t even mentioned heading injuries and Alzheimer's conditions in football.
That being said, the sporting authorities have been slow to take strong actions.
