Fears and anguish over a life that literally " is falling apart " day after day, at just 41 years old: the dramatic confession is of the former captain of the Welsh national rugby team, Ryan Jones , who was diagnosed with form a few months ago of onset dementia.
It is the latest testimony of a long series of former professional rugby players who, following the violent blows suffered during their career, have developed more or less aggressive forms of neurodegenerative brain disease .
"I feel my world is falling apart - Jones's Times story, 75 caps with Wales, and a member of the Lions team on the 2005 tour - I'm really scared because I have three children, and three more from my partner. and I want to be a great dad . I've lived 15 years of my life as a superhero, but I'm not. I don't know what the future holds. "
Last December Jones was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative brain disease that can occur after repeated head injury.
"I am the product of an environment that is all about human performance - its outlet -. I would just like to lead a happy, healthy and normal life, but I feel that something has been taken away from me , and there is nothing I can do. . I can't train harder, I can't be a referee, I don't know what the rules of the game are anymore. "
Jones retired in 2015, in recent years he has also suffered from depression before starting to accuse memory problems that gradually become more and more serious . He says "terrified" because "I don't know how I will be in two or three years, no one can tell me if these episodes of lack of memory will last a week or two, or maybe they will be permanent".
Powerless in the face of a decline that seems unstoppable to him, the former Welsh captain asks that the rugby leaders do something: " Rugby is walking towards the abyss , with its eyes closed: it is a catastrophic situation".
(Unioneonline / L)
