Carl Hayman, former pillar of All Blacks, with early dementia

This diagnosis pushed it to join the action brought by about 150 players, especially in England, against the rugby authorities.

Le Monde with AFP

The old pillar of All Blacks and Racing Club Toulonnais Carl Hayman joined a judicial procedure against rugby authorities, launched by many former players victims of neurological disorders, after having revealed himself. He suffered at 41 years of early dementia.

Selected 45 times with New Zealand, the sportsman explained to have consulted after feeling memory loss, feeling confusion and suicidal thoughts. “I spent several years thinking that I became crazy, and at a certain point that’s really what I thought,” explained the old player at the New Zealand site The Bounce . “They were constant migraines and all those things that arrived and that I could not understand,” he detailed.

Examinations have shown that it suffered from early dementia and a probable chronic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease. This diagnosis pushed it to join the action brought by about 150 players, especially in England, against the rugby authorities.

In December, this group of former professionals, including English Steve Thompson and Welsh Alix Popham, had announced its intention to ask for compensation at World Rugby and the English and Welsh Federations after diagnoses of neurological disorders. “The youngest hopes need to know what they are going on. There must be more support and better monitoring about head injuries and workloads,” said Carl Hayman.

The modified rules

The former player explained that one of the reasons having encouraged him to associate with existing complaints was to cause radical changes in the way rugby and minimize the risk of head injuries. “I hope that in the future the players will not fall into the same trap as me, that they will not be treated like objects and will be better treated”, “he hopes.

“The problem of the link between commotions and long-term cognitive problems is extremely complex, and science evolves,” reacted the boss of the New Zealand Rugby Federation, Mark Robinson. “New Zealand Rugby will continue to prioritize the well-being of players and make the sport safe for everyone,” he added.

The assistant coach of all Blacks John Plumtree testified by his sympathy for Hayman and claimed that rugby rules had since been modified to protect the players’ heads and reduce the number of commoes. “We have the responsibility to make sure that the game is safe and that parents want their children to play,” he said.

World Rugby, the instance of the world rugby, on its part announced that it had not been contacted by Hayman, and did not comment on his statements, reaffirming that for her, “the well-being of the Players is the priority of sport “.

Three cuts of Europe with Toulon

Presented during his career as the best pillar of the world, Hayman won, in addition to his palmares with the All Blacks, three European cuts with Toulon between 2013 and 2015 before announcing his player retreat. He then led to the front of Pau before being suspended at the beginning of 2019 following an altercation having opposed several Palee Players.

He had been sentenced the same year to four months in prison by a Tribunal de Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) for domestic violence against his wife, of which he then separated. Carl Hayman then recognized having problems of alcoholism.

In 2019 always, the former player had participated in a crossing of the United Kingdom by bike for a charity fighting against the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Charcot’s disease. He was responding to the call of Doddie Weir, the former Scottish international second-row who announced in 2017 that he was suffering from this neurodegenerative disease.

/Media reports.