100 former rugby league players start legal fight with RFL over brain injuries

Legal proceedings have been formally issued against the Rugby Football League on behalf of 100 former rugby league players who contend the sport was negligent in failing to take reasonable action to protect them from serious brain injuries.

Over 200 rugby union players have launched proceedings already with the support of Rylands Law, and it has now emerged that a similar case has been brought forward by dozens of league players. They argue that the sport’s governing body did not properly protect them from injury caused by repetitive concussive and sub-concussive blows.

Many of those players have been diagnosed with neurological impairments including early-onset dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, also known as CTE. Among the 100 league players involved in the proceedings is the former St Helens and Great Britain forward, Nick Fozzard, who has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia and probable CTE.

Fozzard revealed in January that specialists told him his brain scan results were among the worst they had ever seen, also saying: “I’m OK so please don’t worry but thought I’d share this: One thing to remember – if rugby league wasn’t the most brutal team sport on earth – I wouldn’t have played it. What a life I had in rugby league.”

But Fozzard is among the group of high-profile players who are involved in the proceedings. Others including the former Great Britain half-back Bobbie Goulding, have previously spoken out about a similar diagnosis and their frustration at a lack of support from the sport post-retirement.

A further 40 rugby union players have also come forward to add to the 220-strong contingent of former professional and amateur players involved in that case, while proceedings have been launched by