Concussion code of silence
The silence from retiring players has the reek of a rugby cover-up
Reggie Goodes, the Hurricanes prop, retired from rugby this week less than a year after his teammate James Broadhurst retired.
Both men had not been able to escape the damaging effects of multiple concussions and had been advised to give up rugby.
Both men, in suspiciously similar media releases, declined to be interviewed.
It had the reek of a cover-up. New Zealand Rugby has done many fine things in its attempt to reduce the number of head injuries that are threatening the future lives of its young people. But this apparent code of silence, what the Sicilians call ‘omerta’, is sinister.
Did both Goodes and Broadhurst independently ask ‘‘that media respect his privacy’’, a phrase repeated in both their statements?
Or are they being advised to say nothing?
There is concern in the NZR hierarchy that these young men are not telling their stories, but perhaps the governing body could use its clout to lean more heavily on the franchises.
Goodes and Broadhurst should be warning others of the dangers that are increasingly apparent.
But it looks like the pair has been shut down, just as the Hurricanes last season tried to shut down the head injury that kept Dane Coles out for so much of last season.
When I rang the Canes about it last season, they were in denial.
After saying nothing for weeks, the Canes tried to pretend that Coles’ symptoms could not be traced to an obvious head knock.
I pointed out that Coles had spiralled through the air and landed on his head.
I pointed out that the had taken a knee three times in the second half of the match in question.
I pointed out that I had written about it at the time.
But seemingly the Canes did not want you mothers and fathers out there to know about any of that.
The handling of Goodes and Broadhurst has been similarly evasive.
Both Goodes and Broadhurst said in their media releases that they retired on medical advice and were looking forward to the next phases of their life. Both men received tributes from their coaches at the Hurricanes.
NZR pledged to support both men as they moved into the next phases of their lives.
And that’s official. No interviews please.
The similarities are surely not coincidence.
This is being stage-managed by a wizard behind the curtain, but these players are not characters in a Disney film where things inevitably turn out well and the evil sorceress Concussionata melts into a puddle of bile and sawdust.
These men face the future possibility of fractured lives.
They face the future possibility of lives cut short.
And we should be talking about it openly.
I looked back at the 2015 Super final between the Hurricanes and the Highlanders. Goodes, Broadhurst and, in case you missed it, Mark Reddish (June, 2017 – ‘‘given the medical advice I have received, it’s the best decision long term for me and my young family’’) have all retired due to the longterm effects of concussion.
That is 10 per cent of the starting 30.
But it’s worse than that. There is a strong case to be made that Ben Smith and Coles should also now have retired for the same reasons.
In 2017 Smith’s problems were eventually passed off as inner ear related and not due to concussion.
Several medical experts whom I consulted said that you could not definitively separate the inner ear problem from previous concussions.
But I am starting to worry that NZR does not want you and I to know the full extent of the carnage that is going on at the top level.
Where is Shane Christie? He was on the bench for that 2015 final and is another who has disappeared.
He was ruled out of last season after displaying ‘‘concussion-like’’ symptoms. Maybe he too had an inner ear problem.
This is starting to smell like a cover-up.
We know NZR don’t want the public to ever find out the names of those who have taken drugs. The Players Association says it is for the rehabilitation of the players.
It’s a fair argument, but it’s also mighty convenient.
Businesses like tennis and golf don’t want any of their players testing positive regardless of whether they are drug users because it is bad for business.
Is rugby taking the same commercial view about the horrors of concussion?
Dr Willie Stewart, a neuro surgeon, pointed out to me that while World Rugby is happy to publicly shame a New Zealand TMO who has no right of reply, it never ever calls out negligent failures to diagnose obvious concussions and remove players.
That’s because it doesn’t want you and I to think that it goes on.
One question we should be asking, for example, is whether the rush defence leads to more concussions.
The Canes employ one and have horrendously high concussion rates.
Another question we could ask is whether high-tempo teams like the Canes and the Chiefs stress their players more and make them more vulnerable to concussion.
In the past few days a study was published in the journal Brain Injury suggesting a devastating deterioration in the cognitive function of former rugby league players.
The sample size of 25 ex-leaguies was small, but the extent of their deterioration was immense.
Compared to the control group of those who hadn’t played league, the former NRL players reaction times were 15 per cent slower, they were 70 per cent worse at maintaining concentration, they performed 122 per cent worse in learning new tasks and 90 per cent worse on memory tests.
Lead researcher Dr Alan Pearce, of Melbourne’s La Trobe University, said: ‘‘We cannot discount the fact that a history of not just concussion, but head trauma may have effects years later.’’
That sounds an incredibly cautious evaluation, and yet I still see all sports continuing to make the same mistakes.
In this year’s Super Bowl, Patriots receiver Brandin Cooks was hit so hard by Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins that you feared he may never get up.
It was helmet to helmet and quite sickening.
Hang on, I thought, hadn’t the NFL banned helmet to helmet? Apparently not.
They had banned helmet to helmet when the receiver was in the act of catching, but as soon as he sets off he is then defined as a runner and it is quite legal to separate his brain from its stem. And so the carnage goes on. Men like Goodes, Broadhurst and Reddish look dimly into uncertain futures.
But in the name of New Zealand Rugby, please respect their privacy, because it’s just not OK to talk about this stuff.
A New Zealand team of players who are either retired from concussion or who should be: Ben Afeaki (retired), Dane Coles (missed much of 2017), Reggie Goodes (retired); James Broadhurst (retired), Craig Clarke (retired); Mark Reddish (retired), Liam Squire (out for six months 2014-15), Shane Christie (missing in action); Steve Devine (still suffering in retirement); Colin Slade (multiple head knocks, stood down by Pau last year after three concussions); Sam McNichol (‘‘willing to try anything’’ so went to a ‘brain trainer’ after repeated concussions), Sonny Bill Williams (multiple concussions), Charlie Ngatai (a year out 2016-17), Ben Smith (forgot his wife was pregnant after yet another concussion and advised to consider retirement by one expert); Leon McDonald (retired).
They face the future possibility of lives cut short.