More than 1,000 former rugby players in concussion lawsuit
The number of former rugby players taking legal action against sports governing bodies on claims they suffered brain injuries during their careers has grown to more than 1,000, a British law firm said on Monday.
Rylands Garth, based in London, said more than 520 ex-players from rugby union and rugby league joined the lawsuit by Friday last week, which was the deadline for new applicants set by a court ahead of a hearing in July and before the case potentially goes to trial next year.
It takes the total number of players who are part of the lawsuit to approximately 1,100, Rylands Garth said in a statement.
The former players contend, according to Rylands Garth, that 'rugby governing bodies failed to take reasonable action to protect them from the impacts of concussive and sub-concussive blows during their playing careers, despite knowing of the risks.'
Claimants are seeking compensation from World Rugby, the English Rugby Football Union and Welsh Rugby Union — governing bodies in 15-a-side rugby — and the English Rugby Football League and British Amateur Rugby League Association — from 13-a-side rugby league — for lost earnings, medical bills and care costs associated with their injuries, the firm said.
'Rylands Garth is also calling for urgent and substantive reform of the game to better protect the safety of current and future players — including the creation of an independent brain health ombudsman for the sport,' it said.
Among those to have previously joined the class action was World Cup-winning former England hooker Steve Thompson, former New Zealand prop Carl Hayman and former Wales flanker Alix Popham.
'This surge in claimants exposes the deep-rooted issues in rugby,' Rylands Garth said, adding: 'Players continue to play almost all-year round, with many elite players soon to embark on extremely physical summer tours across the rugby world. We will continue to fight for justice for those who gave so much to the game.'
In a joint statement issued by World Rugby, the RFU and the WRU, the governing bodies said they 'are aware of the latest update shared by the claimants' legal representatives with the final number of claimants.'
'We now await full details of their diagnosis and the claims being made. Our thoughts are with any former player facing challenges.
'Across the game, we continue to build on a strong foundation of world-leading initiatives designed to make rugby union as safe as possible.'
That includes 'smart mouthguard technology in the elite game, trials of lower tackle height in the community game, and the continued rollout of brain health services to support former players.'
Rylands Garth said it also represents approximately 130 former soccer players who are taking similar legal action against soccer governing bodies. The next court hearing for the soccer case is due on June 26.
___
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
44 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Woman teacher banned for pupil sex and drugs texts
A woman has been banned from teaching after a panel found she sent messages about her sexual encounters to a pupil and encouraged him to smoke cannabis with her. Charlotte Doman, then 32, was teaching history at William Edwards secondary school in Grays, Essex, when her inappropriate contact began. A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel was told she sent messages to the pupil where she called him "little duck" and said to him she loved him, but she denied what she said was romantic. Marc Cavey, TRA chief executive, decided she should be banned from teaching indefinitely, subject to a five-year review period. The TRA heard Ms Doman sent dozens of messages to the child, who the panel referred to as Pupil A, between April and May 2023. In one she said: "You're not even legal or an adult or anything. Like, am I taking advantage of you? Some days it feels like you're taking advantage of me lol." In messages seen by the panel, she told him: "YOU have all the control in this relationship." She also told Pupil A details about her sexual relationships, the panel found, saying in an Instagram message: "One night I ended up with three different guys." She was said to have made comments about the pupil's appearance and messaged him, saying: "I literally go get waxed every eight weeks for no-one to appreciate it." The panel also heard Ms Doman encouraged Pupil A and his friends to "pull sickies" on a day she was off school, and at least once invited Pupil A to spend time alone with her. The now 34-year-old did not attend her misconduct hearing, but in written statements said the "little duck" nickname was "not romantic". She said she was letting the pupil "know that someone cared about his existence" in telling him she loved him. Ms Doman admitted she also encouraged Pupil A to drink alcohol and smoke cannabis with her, and said: "I am unsure why any of this occurred. "I certainly don't behave like this myself. I drink alcohol less than once a month and never to excess, and I've never taken drugs." The teacher also admitted she had sent Pupil A messages outside of school hours and acknowledged she told him to "remove all trace" of her from his phone. Ms Doman denied her conduct was sexually motivated and said she saw Pupil A as "like her child", but the panel ruled on the contrary. It said Ms Doman's behaviour had a "seriously damaging" impact on Pupil A, his parents, the school and its wider community, and her conduct "had the potential to influence Pupil A in a harmful way". Ms Doman was facing "difficulties" in her personal life at the time, the hearing was told, but the panel ruled that she "did not show sufficient insight in respect of the impact her conduct had on others". Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
The Very Gay Life of Edmund White
Edmund White might have invented the unapologetic queer on the page. At least he did for me. Nothing coded gay, vaguely tragic; nothing furtive or metaphorical or obscured behind the billowing curtains of literary flounciness. I can still recall the thrill of spotting the cover of his 1983 novel 'A Boy's Own Story' in a rotating rack of paperbacks in a bookstore in my dull, conservative hometown, Marlborough, England. I must have been about 15. It was the mid-1980s, the thick of the AIDS plague, and gay men were being cast as vectors of their own destruction. It was a complicated time to be thinking about coming out. But here was a novel with a boy on the cover who looked close to my age, his thick glossy hair gently ruffled by the wind, his lips plump, his jaw strong. His tank top revealed the slope of his shoulders, the contours of his biceps. I'd never seen a cover or read a book that spoke to me like that. The fact that a gay teenager could exist in fiction blew my mind. The fact that one, like me, could exist in the world did, too. 'A Boy's Own Story' was daring not just because it placed a queer adolescent at its center, but also because it did so with sophistication, introspection and horniness. The narrator — clearly, as with all of his narrators, based on him — is vividly real. Ed White and I were later to become friends, when I had moved to New York and was editing Out magazine. This was not a surprise: Ed, who died on Tuesday at 85, was always very open to meeting young literary men. He was a raconteur and had stories for miles. I lapped them up. We all did. Talking frankly about sex was a hallmark of his writing.(Among his many nonfiction works was 'The Joy of Gay Sex,' a sex manual he co-wrote in 1977.) He always saw himself as a gay writer for gay readers, the distinction he drew between his generation of queer writers and those who came earlier, like Gore Vidal and James Baldwin. They might write gay characters, but they never seemed to be writing for gay readers. Ed was. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Why Sunderland need 'experience and understanding' to survive
[Getty Images] We asked for your questions for BBC Sport pundit Nedum Onuoha on your Premier League club. Chris asked what Nedum's former club Sunderland can do to strengthen for the challenges of the Premier League next season after securing promotion. Advertisement That is a tough question. I would say they need to find people with good Premier League experience that also understand what it takes to galvanise a group to take on a challenge that most of those guys have not experienced before - and can do it as significant underdogs on a week-to-week basis. If you bring somebody in who expects to be successful straight away then some of the tougher times might affect the mood. You need someone with experience who is realistic and can also be part of a team build. You do not want to go into the Premier League and just figure it out as you go along. You want to have a plan and to build. It seems like the manager has got a lot of belief in them by finally getting back up there, plus some of the players already there could potentially do well in the top flight. Advertisement Sunderland need to find players who will complement that, not ones who are going to be doing things for themselves if things start to go sour because, in reality and as it stands, people do not expect them to win a lot of games. They are going to have to be fighting their way through on a week-to-week basis. I have heard links with Jordan Henderson coming back. I do not know if he will, but if somebody with that much Premier League experience would want to be part of a transition period for the club - and he is also in one himself - then that would be great. That is part of what you need - somebody who will understand the area, understand the fanbase and understand the club. Not somebody who just sees a chance to go and play in the Premier League. Advertisement If you fail to find the right mix then it will be a real split in terms of those who have come up with the side and those who arrive. If Sunderland do not get experience and understanding then they will be in a terrible position in a year's time - probably heading back to the Championship but this time without that cohesive feeling they had just a few weeks ago. Nedum Onuoha was speaking to BBC Sport's Nat Hayward Sunderland fans, this is your Premier League club page. If you're using the app, tap the bell icon and select news alerts and we'll send the best bits straight to you. If you're on a desktop, hit follow and you'll start seeing more Sunderland content when you use the site.
