“I have a limited amount of brain energy per day. Those words are those of Carl Hayman, a spine-chilling statement. The former All Blacks gave his news on April 19 to AFP, he who announced at the end of 2021 that he was suffering from early dementia. A neurological disorder that can potentially, like memory loss, be due to repeated head shocks on the pitch.
As revealed by L’Équipe, the pillar is one of the fifteen athletes who filed an appeal against the rugby authorities (the federation and the league) at the end of 2022 for breach of their security and information obligations on the subject. including concussions.
To better understand this trauma, David Brauge, neurosurgeon in Toulouse, explains it to us: “It is an impact to the head, this causes a shock wave which propagates in the brain, this results in the appearance of neurological symptoms, the most obvious is knockout. The player may also be confused, repeat the same thing and have inappropriate gaming behavior. There is no lesion or bleeding in the head, the neurons are not destroyed. On the other hand, following this shock, there are a lot of chemical anomalies that appear. They will take several hours, several days to correct themselves. »
But then what is the danger? “We found that it can cause problems if these shocks are repeated when the brain has not fully recovered […] if you give it time to recover, you eliminate 95% of problem concussions. »
A phenomenon that is, however, growing. According to a 2021 study launched by the Drake Foundation, 50% of professional rugby players show a change in their brain volume due to impacts received in the head during their career.
Among the 44 players who took part in this survey from 2017 to the end of 2019, 21 of them had suffered a mild impact to the head. As part of this study, they all had an MRI and a scanner one year later for half of them.
If concussions are not just a matter of rugby, Ovalie is one of the sports that is most interested in it. Since 2012, a protocol has improved the management of head injuries and concussions, recalls World Rugby.
An awareness linked to the evolution of medicine and which took time to emerge. Patrick Tabacco, 18 selections with the Blues (2001-2005), gives us his testimony on a bygone era when concussions did not mark the minds as much.
“I turned professional in 1995. And at the time, the concussion was just a trauma to the brain that caused us to lose our memory at a given moment. It didn’t worry us that much since the medical staffs weren’t frightened by this kind of situation if we managed to regain our senses. »
An almost trivial injury? “It was just one of many wounds that I imagined could be repaired and anything that can be repaired has never scared me. At that time, I didn’t think there could be any sequels. On a rugby pitch, I never saw myself in mortal danger. »
A shock experienced as a click for the ex-flanker of US Colomiers: “The next day, I saw the neurologist who was following me and there I really became aware of the danger of concussions. I asked him if I could play again quickly. His response was blunt: “I don’t advise you to play again, if you go back to the field right away and you take a shock again within the next three weeks, your brain could switch off permanently.” Back at my club, I was immediately asked if I could play. And there, I explain to them what the doctor told me, that I am going to abstain for three weeks. I felt, on the one hand, a sporting pressure and, on the other, I had the opinion of a specialist who advised me to remain calm for my health. What I have done. If the neurosurgeon hadn’t told me anything, I would have returned to the field, out of ignorance of the subject of concussions. »
Today reconverted in the frame of sports jersey, the former third line wing does not really know if he has any consequences from his concussions, a bit moved, he confides: “I have very few memories, whether it’s related to my three concussions, I’m not sure, but I have a lot of information from my youth that has disappeared. And above all, I lost all the emotions linked to my career. I have the impression that my sporting journey was experienced by my brother and that I saw him play on TV. I no longer have the emotions of the locker room, of a final, I have yet played seven finals…”
Then to conclude: “For me, it is essential that the rugby player is aware of the consequences of such shocks when he begins his career. Thus, everyone makes their choices consciously. »
