Dylan Bettencourt
England prop Joe Marler revealed that a head injury sustained during a game made him forget that he was a father.
While discussing Welsh player Ryan Jones being diagnosed with early onset dementia at the age of 32, the England player who was capped 83 times said the head injury he sustained left him unconscious.
“I was out cold. The next thing I remembered was being in the physio room and the kit-man came in. I just broke down. I had no recollection of having kids. It scared the life out of me,” he told TalkSport.
Marler’s scare came in 2016 when he took a blow from his England teammate Billy Vunipola.
Since then his wife has urged him to take frequent concussion tests.
“I’ve just buried my head in the sand, to be honest, because it scares me. I just ignore it and bury my head in the sand,” the three-time Six Nations winner said.
“But the more it comes out and the more apparent it becomes in the sport, the more boys are getting diagnosed with this stuff. It’s sad.”
The Harlequin player said it was awful that Jones had to be told this at such a young age.
However, while Marler agrees that something needs to be done in order to prevent these diagnoses, rugby still needs to remain the game it is.
“There is always going to be that element of danger and you don’t want to remove it so that it isn’t rugby anymore,” he said.
“But you want to be well informed going into it. As long as players are informed with what the dangers are, they can make informed choices,” he said.
Ryan Jones, along with several other players, are in the process of taking legal action against the rugby union’s governing bodies.
The players believe they did not do enough to protect them while they were active.
Steps have been taken in recent years to reduce the risk of head trauma, such as limiting contact training during the week and introducing harsh penalties for dangerous play.
Image source: @TheIndependent
