Rugby heads for trouble
The wife of former All Black Geoff Old has urged NZ Rugby to set up a ‘‘special fund’’ to assist those players who are suffering from cognitive issues that they believe are a direct consequence of their time in the sport.
Geoff Old, now 64, played 14 games (three tests) as a loose forward for the All Blacks between 1980 and 1982. He played more than 100 games for Manawatu. Irene Gottlieb-Old said her husband now has cognitive issues that are serious enough to warrant him being monitored and having constant care and support.
She wants NZ Rugby to do more to assist the former players who helped build the All Blacks’ brand that is so highly regarded around the world.
‘‘Please step forward and come up with a special fund to honour your legacy players that brought this team forward to make it as great as it is today,’’ Gottlieb-Old told RNZ.
‘‘So you can continue to enjoy the sport and the benefits of the sport economically, and for the community and the country.
‘‘But you have to, please, figure something out now and acknowledge that people do need help.’’
In addition to suffering from memory loss and headaches, Gottlieb-Old said her husband was sensitive to light: ‘‘But he is vital and he is a very special man, that deserves some dignity and to know he will continue to have a purpose moving forward.’’
She said she became aware of her husband’s health issues, which she believes are related to his time in rugby, when his ‘‘personality shifted’’ and he began making excuses about why he was forgetting things.
‘‘He was making decisions that maybe someone else wouldn’t have made the same way,’’ she said.
‘‘It has become a very, very difficult situation and he started to move into more of a black hole.
‘‘It’s hard to watch a sturdy, special man slip into a quiet corner separating himself from family and friends mostly because he forgets he even has them in his life.’’
Gottlieb-Old said some of his memories of being with the All Blacks are lost.
‘‘His brain has become dull. It makes the daily living more difficult, and he gets confused and it exacerbates the physical symptoms.’’
This week it emerged that British-based lawyers are leading an action against the sport’s authorities.
Ex-England hooker Steve Thompson, 42, has said he has been diagnosed with early onset of dementia and can’t remember taking part in the World Cup in Australia in 2003.
Richard Boardman, who is representing seven players including Thompson and could take legal action against World Rugby, the (English) Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union, says something must be done to assist ex-players who have suffered as a result of concussion.
Gottlieb-Old said Boardman had spoken to her and Geoff, but no further action had been taken. However, she said they would be interested in getting involved if legal action goes ahead.
‘‘Yes. We have nothing to lose,’’ she said.
‘‘It is probably too late for us
‘‘It’s hard to watch a sturdy, special man slip into a quiet corner separating himself from family and friends mostly because he forgets he even has them in his life.’’
Irene Gottlieb-Old wife of Geoff Old
because all the help and the treatment that he probably would have gotten, more than what we were capable of affording ... may have helped slow the progression a little bit more.’’
The news that someone was prepared to take on the game’s rulers was ‘‘thrilling’’, she said.
‘‘It has to happen, there has to be some accountability.’’