It’s time for rugby to wake up to dangers of concussion
EXCLUSIVE He fought the NFL and won ... now pathologist Bennet Omalu says rugby also needs to wake up to the dangers
PIONEERING pathologist Bennet Omalu, who forced American football to accept evidence of brain damage among players, has hit out at rugby for continuing to put athletes at risk.
He says the much-vaunted Head Injury Assessment system is only there to avoid the worst-case scenario of players dying on the pitch — and does nothing to repair damage already done.
Omalu spoke to Sportsmail from his home in California in the wake of Scotland star David Denton’s decision to retire at the age of 29.
Denton called time on his rugby career earlier this week on the advice of his neurologist, having suffered disturbed vision and pressure inside the skull since suffering a concussion 11 months ago.
Omalu, an active campaigner on the subject since he identified chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain of former Pittsburgh Steelers player Mike Webster in 2002, is dismissive of World Rugby’s attempts to protect players with their return-to-play protocols.
‘What Head Injury Assessment does is remove you from play so you don’t die on the field,’ he said.
‘People need to know the truth of the science. The brain is not like the liver or the skin.
‘If you damage your skin, it will regenerate and regrow. If you damage your liver, even, it will regenerate and regrow. The brain is not like that. Once you suffer a concussion, there is nothing a Head Injury Assessment does for you. People need to know that.
‘Stop telling us it’s safe. It’s like telling me fire is safe because we’ve found ways to contain it. Fire is still fire. Blunt-force trauma to the head is still blunt-force trauma to the head. People need to know that.’
Omalu took on the might of the NFL and won. He carries a message that hundreds of millions most probably don’t want to hear. He doesn’t try to sugarcoat the facts, as he sees them, makes no attempt to compromise, dismissing all half-measures as worse than useless.
More than once, he compares his battle against blunt-force trauma with the frustrations faced by those scientists who were once slapped down for even suggesting that smoking cigarettes might not really be as healthy as all those brand-endorsing doctors claimed.
And, on the eve of the World Cup in Japan, he doesn’t hold back.
‘Tell the truth’. That was one of the stand-out lines delivered by Will Smith when he played Omalu in the movie Concussion. Having listened to details of Denton’s decision to quit, Omalu is forthright.
‘When a player retires at 29, it may already be too late for him,’ he said. ‘It’s a smart step, to stop playing now. But it may already be too late. He may have already suffered permanent brain damage.
‘Just three weeks ago, in Australia, they have identified CTE in rugby players. My view on rugby has always been the same. It is a violent sport, just like American football.
‘Some people involved in rugby in Australia have been in touch. A few retired players there are suffering in silence. But we need to tell everyone what we know now. We have to embrace the truth of science — instead of some alternative truth created by money or culture.’
Omalu famously placed himself in opposition to the NFL, a league valued at around $8billion, when he first blew the whistle on evidence of CTE in the brain of the late Webster.
Self-confessedly naive enough to believe the league would welcome his findings, he found himself pilloried and attacked by the NFL’s own medical specialists.
He spent years presenting more and more conclusive findings. He was dismissed and decried as lacking in sufficient expertise.
If the man himself would never claim to have achieved a total victory over an industry intent on protecting itself, rather than its players, he eventually forced change on the league.
As well as rule changes, the NFL has shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to players who suffered trauma.
It is no longer disputed that repeated blows to the head — often made worse by wearing helmets, ironically — put these elite athletes at risk. In a league where there are often upwards of 200 concussions per season, things simply had to change.
When it’s suggested to Dr Omalu that World Rugby, the Six Nations, the Rugby Championship and all the lucrative domestic leagues simply aren’t going to roll over because of his concerns, he speaks with the certainty of a man who has heard it all before.
‘You are asking me how we make it safer,’ said Omalu. ‘That means you already accept it can never be safe. You acknowledge that.
‘We need to let the players know that we cannot make this game safe. As long as you play, you will have 100-per-cent risk closure to brain damage.
‘Rugby has to educate players, let them know they are playing a game with an inherent risk of suffering permanent brain damage. We are intelligent people. We evolve and, as we evolve, we grow more intelligent.
‘And, as we grow more intelligent, we give up the ways of the past. Why should sports be any different? We know concussion causes brain damage. In 1976, The
Lancet published a paper about the damage done to the brain in accidents. Knowing what we know now, it’s foolish to intentionally cause that same kind of damage through sports.’
Omalu added: ‘Who says rugby is part of modern society? Why should we be playing sports from a hundred years ago?
‘Rugby is not an intelligent sport. It is a remnant of a less intelligent past. You can never make rugby safe because part of the game, part of playing, is exposure to traumatic brain injury.
‘If they want to make it safe, change the game — come up with a different game.
‘In America, some universities are now at least removing contact from practice sessions in football. There is less contact in training. And they have shorter seasons, fewer games, than rugby.
‘I ask you what is intelligent about a human being playing rugby 40 times in one year?
‘So let’s educate the public. Educate players — they have to live with the consequences. Empower them to the point where they can step out if they are worried.’
Omalu’s main concern is for children. He sees no reason why any parent would allow their child to play rugby — and believes even one season could lead to brain damage that will last their entire lives.
‘The truth will prevail,’ he said. ‘And change takes only one full generation. It is the duty of physicians like myself to tell the truth. It is the duty of journalists like you to tell the truth — and not some other truth based on your love of the game.
‘One of the best things that has happened to rugby and American football is people like me — doctors, researchers — telling the truth about the dangers.
‘Because the human beings who play these sports, their lives are worth more to society than even the biggest rugby match. We need to empower players. And we can do that by speaking out.
‘Just like this Scottish player who has retired at 29, here in the US, there are many more American football players who are retiring in their 20s.
‘I’m very optimistic. It is the duty of doctors like me to shout it out and, just like it says in the movie Concussion, tell the truth!’
It’s a smart step, to stop playing at 29. But it may already be too late. He may have already suffered brain damage