Brain-injured rugby player speaks as lawsuit prepared
John “JJ” Williams can’t remember the day he got married.
The 63-year-old former Waikato representative and Junior All Blacks lock can’t remember anything from his playing days in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
He says he was concussed many times during his short career and has been told he is likely living with the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
“All those years, I don’t even remember the day I got married or my career. It’s like another life that existed that I didn’t know about,” he said.
Williams talked about his condition after the Herald revealed a lawsuit is being prepared overseas, covering former players left with cognitive issues ranging from postconcussion syndrome to suspected CTE.
As many as 70 former rugby players could have contributed to the action, including a number of All Blacks, whose lives and livelihoods have been affected by cognitive impairment.
Williams’ lawyer has contacted a QC in London about the action, but he doesn’t yet know the ins and outs of the situation.
He was the first New Zealand rugby player to publicly commit his brain to science after being diagnosed with CTE.
The concussion issue is something close to the heart for Williams, who urges anyone with brain problems to seek help.
He lives with constant headaches, is sensitive to light, has mood swings, has blackouts, and often forgets what he is doing.
The state of his mind affected his marriage, which has ended, and his work life. He is cared for at all times by his new partner.
Head knocks weren’t on anyone’s radar when Williams used to lace up the boots but he doesn’t begrudge the lack of action, “it’s how it was”.
He recalls being knocked out during a game and continuing to play until about a month later when doctors discovered he had fractured his skull.
He was forced to give up life as a stock agent, forgetting things like which farmer to visit or what weights to tell them.
“Then I went farming and I’d go and get the cows and my parents would see there was no one at the shed,” Williams said.
“I’d be in the paddock, sitting there if something went wrong, like if there was a sick cow or something not right, I’d freak out and sit there.”
The only things he knows about his rugby career are through newspaper clippings left by his mother.
However, he says a great weight was lifted off his shoulders after tests by a neuro-psychologist indicated CTE.
CTE can only be definitively diagnosed post-mortem, so Williams has notified his family that he wants to donate his brain for testing.
“It’s a hell of a relief [ once you know],” Williams said. ”
Two former All Blacks, Carl Hayman and Geoff Old, have been in contact with British-based lawyers about their post-playing medical conditions.
The action is being readied by lawyers in Britain and will likely target several national rugby bodies within that jurisdiction.
Herald sources indicate it will argue that rugby authorities have known about, and subsequently underplayed, the risks associated with repetitive head injuries for decades.