My head injury left me unable to move. Women's rugby can't afford to downplay the risks

While it's incredible to see how fast women's rugby is growing - with packed stadiums, professional contracts and global attention - it's hard to celebrate without thinking about those who came before.

- Jessica Hayden

England's Alex Matthews tackles a French player during a Six Nations game in 2023.

(Adrian Dennis/AFP)

Many former players watching the rise of the women's game will be doing so through the haze of neurodegenerative diseases caused by the repeated head impacts they sustained from playing rugby. Their stories are a warning.

More than 700 union players are suing World Rugby, England Rugby and the Welsh Rugby Union for what they allege to be a failure to adequately educate players and protect them from brain injuries. The vast majority of the claimants are men. Some have early onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a form of brain disease that can only be diagnosed postmortem.

The players include Alix Popham, the former Wales flanker, who was diagnosed with dementia aged 40. Popham can't remember his career, but his neurologist estimates he sustained 100,000 hits to his head over the 14 years he played professional rugby.

The lawsuit focuses on an era, roughly from the 1980s to early 2010s, when the men's game was transitioning from amateur to professional. The women's game is currently at a comparable point. Last month's World Cup final was played between England's Red Roses, full-time professionals, and Canada, who crowdfunded their way to the tournament.