Four years ago, just after the Guardian had first reported that a group of eight rugby union players had been diagnosed with early onset dementia and were planning legal action against the game’s governing bodies, I sat down to a three-way interview with the former Wales international Alix Popham and the forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu. It was Popham’s idea. He had just gone public with his own diagnosis and was planning to launch a charitable foundation to raise awareness about brain health. He had seen the movie about Omalu’s life, Concussion, and wanted to learn more about his story.
Omalu describes himself as the man who first identified chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain of an American football player. He is a colourful character, one of a few I’ve met in over a decade of reporting on these issues. Even within the small community of people campaigning for better brain health there were people who would, and did, warn me off talking to him because they felt he had exaggerated his achievements. Omalu has his flaws. But it is indisputable that he has done plenty to publicise the risks of CTE in sport, and that he has a better idea than most about the obstacles, and arguments, that anyone who wanted to do likewise was likely to face.
