Sufferers live one day at a time. It’s too late for a cure

FERNANDO RICKSEN’S struggles have been so unremitting that the energy he radiated when back at his beloved Rangers training ground last week defied comprehension.

‘My first bite of fresh air in four months. Murray Park, here I come!’ he had tweeted in advance of meeting with Steven Gerrard and the players. He had been confined for the previous month to his room in the Scottish hospice where he accepts he will spend the rest of his life, contending with the desperately debilitating effects of Motor Neurone Disease (MND).

Those closest to Ricksen relate the story of how he has been bombarded with offers of some kind of cure. ‘There are so many people saying “I’ve got a medicine for you”,’ says Vincent de Vries, his biographer and friend. ‘People mean well and he’s been searching for answers. But I think now he’s concentrating on living a day at a time. It’s too late for a cure now.’

The uncertainty about what drives this illness — also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS — is as profound as ever, even though academic discussion of a sporting link has given it the name ‘Athlete’s curse’ for a number of years.

The Doddie Weir Foundation wants to see further research into evidence, published today by

Sportsmail, that concussive injuries sustained in elite sport could be the cause. The 48-yearold former Scotland lock revealed two years ago he has MND.

The Foundation’s scientific advisory board will be discussing the new findings at its forthcoming meeting, although Sean McGrath, its head of medical strategy, said he is more persuaded by suggestions that extreme levels of athleticism could be a cause of NMD in some. The Utrecht University Medical Centre made a link between hard, regular exercise and MND last year, although it also cautioned that the link between the two was not conclusive and stressed that exercise has been found to prevent many other diseases.

Weir’s Foundation and sport governing bodies were unanimous yesterday in stating that further research is needed. Only by monitoring past and present sportsmen and women over time — a longitudinal study — can the link between MND and certain top-level sports be proved or disproved.

That process can be long and requires commitment. The Professional Football Association in England quietly closed such a research project some years ago, claiming that it had failed to keep track of its sample players. But a duty of care to players demands that the work be done. There can

RICKSEN HAS BECOME RESIGNED TO REMAINING IN THE HOSPICE

those in sport, or that certain types of repeated trauma to head and spine are, indeed, the most significant contributory factor. There is no known longitudinal study into the links between MND and any sport.

The study reveals that there is room for greater vigilance about head and neck injuries. It wants greater attention to a condition known as cervical cord neuropraxia, usually caused by head collisions, resulting in a temporary loss of feeling in limbs generally restored within 24 hours. Cervical cord neuropraxia may have more serious long-term effects than has been appreciated, says the study.

‘Increased awareness among athletes who engage in contact sports cannot be overemphasised,’ states the report. ‘Precautions aimed at decreasing the likelihood to sustain blunt concussive head or neck trauma, accurate medical documentation and periodic health monitoring may all prove to be life-saving.’

World Rugby observed that concussion rates in rugby have reduced over the last year — the first reduction since the introduction of the Head Injury Assessment regime in 2012, which lowered the threshold for the identification and removal of players with confirmed or suspected concussion.

Weir is an inspiration for those afflicted by the disease and remains a larger than life character, although those closest to him say they are ‘pulling on the handbrake,’ to ensure that he does not become exhausted. He has less dexterity than a year ago.

Ricksen continues to defy all expectation, although he is changed beyond all recognition from the left-back Rangers fans took to when he arrived from AZ Alkmaar in his native Holland in 2000. Rushed to hospital after developing breathing problems at an event for Rangers fans last autumn, there were fears he would not live much longer.

He spent three months in the hospital, later moving to a hospice in Airdrie, unable to fly home to Valencia because of a lack of oxygen. For three months he did not see his Russian wife Veronika, who was denied visa clearance to enter Britain until January. He has a six-year-old daughter, Isabella.

He insists he is now resigned to remaining in the hospice. ‘I’m not afraid for the future,’ he said. ‘I know I am in the right place if something happens.’