England and Lions prop Joe Marler has revealed how concussion led him to forget he had children, as he outlines his concerns about dementia. The 32-year-old Harlequins loosehead has been speaking following the news that former Wales captain Ryan Jones has been diagnosed with early onset dementia at 41.
He told talkSPORT Breakfast : “First of all, it’s awful for Ryan to be told that and be going through that and it’s kind of struck a chord with me because it’s been quite well spoken about in rugby over the last few years with all of the discoveries that they’ve had with concussions and the relation to it all. I’ve just buried my head in the sand, to be honest because it scares me.
“I remember getting knocked out a couple of seasons ago - a big, big blow when I was trying to tackle Billy Vunipola. I was out cold and the next thing I remember was being in the physio room and the kit man came in.
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“He was like, ‘Alright mate, is your wife here?’, ‘Yeah she is’. He said, ‘What about the kids?’, I went ‘Pardon?, and he said ‘Has she brought the kids?’. I just paused and broke down and I had no recollection of having kids and it just really scared the life out of me.
“It all came back together and it happens. Those concussions happen in rugby, it’s a contact sport. Since those moments I just ignore it and bury my head in the sand, 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.”
Marler, who has won 83 caps for England and toured with the Lions, continued: “I got a concussion (this season) and I did what I used to do which was to just crack on. Shake it off a bit, take a breather and then crack on.
“I remember telling Daisy, my wife, a week after and said I was struggling this week and the look I got from her, she was like ‘No, I’m not having it any more. If you get a head knock, you follow the right protocols and you tell someone because it’s not about you anymore’.
“She said, ‘do you want to be here for the kids, or not? Do you want to be here for me, or not?’ They’re definitely things that I think about a little bit more.”
On the challenges facing the game, he said: “We’re trying to reduce tackle height, crack down with a lot more red cards and get coaches and players to change their habits of tackling too high, but as it’s a contact sport you can’t remove the contact.
“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. But you do want to be well informed going into it.
“With my kids I look at it and think, ‘Do I want my sons and daughters growing up to play rugby?’ And I go, ‘Yes, of course. It’s given me a great life, great friends, and I’ve met lovely people along the way. I love this sport’. Right, but there are dangers to it. As long as I am informed with what the dangers are and can make an informed choice.
“Conversations do go on and boys are far more informed about the dangers of it and the more research that is going into it. You’re not going to be able to reduce collisions in a game. The bigger issue is how much contact training you’re doing in the week. You can (increase) the safety a bit but if you’re doing contact three, four, or five times a week, not unnecessarily as you need to learn good technique, but, if it’s controlled, that’s where the improvement can be made.”
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