Rugby urged to cut matches as study finds players’ risk of MND is 15 times higher

The consultant who led the study warned that the issue of brain damage in rugby could be even worse in 20 years’ time. Photograph: David Davies/PA

Rugby union has been urged to cut back on competitive matches and stop contact training sessions altogether during the season following a landmark study which found the risk of motor neurone disease among Scottish international players was 15 times higher than the general population.

The research, which compared 412 former Scotland internationals born between 1900 and 1990 to over 1,200 non-players with the same age, area and socioeconomic status, also found that the rugby players – all male – were twice as likely to get dementia and more than three times likely to get Parkinson’s disease.