Thompson: Rugby is lethal

STEVE THOMPSON, the England

World Cup winner who cannot remember the greatest day of his sporting life, has insisted he doesn’t want his kids to play rugby until the sport is made safer.

The former Northampton hooker, 43, is suffering from early-onset dementia only a decade after hanging up his boots.

He says he has no memory of helping England win the World Cup in 2003, nor can he remember meeting the Queen to collect his MBE or the births of his children.

Thompson has opened up in his autobiography, Unforgettable, a journey through his increasingly muddled world in which blow after blow sustained playing rugby at the highest level has left him irreversibly brain damaged. ‘I didn’t know rugby could be lethal,’ he says.

Thompson is a campaigner for change to a sport which he argues has gone from agility and speed to raw power and strength.

‘I’d be knocked out in training and the level of concern around me would be nothing more than a shrug of shoulders. I believe I did my job but the people around me didn’t. They were dishonest and they hid stuff.’

Thompson and other players are suing rugby bosses, alleging they failed to act on clear evidence of the risks of head injury.