Lewis Moody

[Danno]

This is awful

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union ... 7rddrrlqno

[pjm1]

One of my absolute favourite players of all time. Utterly tragic and so hard for him and his family to know what’s coming.

Life is unfair - he deserves a better end than this.

[Danno]

And at 47. He's not far ahead of me. Just horrible.

[Mr Mwenda]

So sad. Poor bugger.

[FKAS]

Horrible news to wake up to. Can only imagine what he's going through at the minute.

[Galfon]

Sad to hear. His UC condition in his prime probably prevented him being Eng greatest ever, and now this at reatively young age.
Wishing him the best support and journey from here.

[Oakboy]

I lost a close friend to this evil disease. It's a terrible way to go. Poor chap.

[Which Tyler]

bloody hell.
Good luck in your fight Lewis

[fivepointer]

Grim news. Wishing him well.

[twitchy]

Very sad times.

[paddy no 11]

That's desperate news, poor man

[Mikey Brown]

Horrible news. He was a real icon.

The Lions in 05 was one my first memories of getting properly in to rugby, and in a desperate losing cause he was still relentless. Amazing to watch the way he threw himself about.

I was on a packed train when I read that bit about him telling his kids and I’ll say I’m glad I had my sunglasses on to hide welling up.

[jngf]

Just seen his interview on 10 o’clock news - utter respect!

[paddy no 11]

Real worry is as we push into pro era that these are once a month stories if not worse

[Which Tyler]

Worth noting that Joost and Doddie both played plenty in the pro era.
Incidence is about 1 in 300 of the general population - This year, with 10 teams, there are approximately 400 senior players in the Prem. Between Prem, URC and T14, you'd expect 5 current players to suffer MND at some point in their life, through sheer population stat.s (a full house at Leicester would see 80-90 of the crowd to suffer MND at some point in their life).

At this moment in time, it looks like there's a correlation with elite (cardio) sport, unconfirmed as to being causative, or mechanism of causation - theoretically something to do with prolonged/repeated oxygen depletion of motor neurons at extremes of exertion?
AFAIK there's no correlation with boxers and MND - obviously, elite athletes, though not so much cardio; and significantly more traumatic brain injury.

[Mellsblue]

Yep. Everything I’ve read says that it’s linked to high/elite levels of fitness rather than impacts, concussions, violent contact etc etc
Plus the life lottery that is your genes.

[Danno]

Gawd, that stat of 1 in 300 of the general population is pretty terrifying

[morepork]

Worth noting that Joost and Doddie both played plenty in the pro era.
Incidence is about 1 in 300 of the general population - This year, with 10 teams, there are approximately 400 senior players in the Prem. Between Prem, URC and T14, you'd expect 5 current players to suffer MND at some point in their life, through sheer population stat.s (a full house at Leicester would see 80-90 of the crowd to suffer MND at some point in their life).

At this moment in time, it looks like there's a correlation with elite (cardio) sport, unconfirmed as to being causative, or mechanism of causation - theoretically something to do with prolonged/repeated oxygen depletion of motor neurons at extremes of exertion?
AFAIK there's no correlation with boxers and MND - obviously, elite athletes, though not so much cardio; and significantly more traumatic brain injury.

This is absolutely right. Motor neurons have the largest axons in the central nervous system and are acutely susceptible to interruption of metabolic energy as they are unable to store energy or efficiently metabolize fatty acids. Nothing but admiration for the guy in fronting up. That takes balls and helps awareness tremendously. Known genetic risk factors are rare but there are a few approved drugs that can target some of those. 47 is too young. Godspeed you mad blonde machine.

[Danno]

Ha, Mad Blonde Machine is an excellent characterisation.

[Puja]

Terrific article describing his character from a non-rugby friend of his: https://www.planetrugby.com/news/james- ... is-head-on

It's weird reading all the encomiums that're being written, cause they all read like eulogies. Hopefully he'll go into this without that in his head - MND is a bitch of a disease, but it can be fought - Joost van der Westhuizen was given 2-5 years to live after a late diagnosis and ended up going for 9 whole years, and that was 14 years of medical research ago. With luck, new treatments will continue to come out and we'll get to enjoy his presence for longer than we fear.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

Terrific article describing his character from a non-rugby friend of his: https://www.planetrugby.com/news/james- ... is-head-on

It's weird reading all the encomiums that're being written, cause they all read like eulogies. Hopefully he'll go into this without that in his head - MND is a bitch of a disease, but it can be fought - Joost van der Westhuizen was given 2-5 years to live after a late diagnosis and ended up going for 9 whole years, and that was 14 years of medical research ago. With luck, new treatments will continue to come out and we'll get to enjoy his presence for longer than we fear.

Puja

Yeah I thought that looking back at my own words “he was an icon” could be read as him being gone already. It’s a tough one.

Whatever the situation, “Moodos” as a nickname is absolutely not on.

[Which Tyler]

Whatever the situation, “Moodos” as a nickname is absolutely not on.

Especially when there's an existing "Mad Dog" to use

[twitchy]

I couldn't remember the exact details, but I remembered him fighting samoans.

[paddy no 11]

Worth noting that Joost and Doddie both played plenty in the pro era.
Incidence is about 1 in 300 of the general population - This year, with 10 teams, there are approximately 400 senior players in the Prem. Between Prem, URC and T14, you'd expect 5 current players to suffer MND at some point in their life, through sheer population stat.s (a full house at Leicester would see 80-90 of the crowd to suffer MND at some point in their life).

At this moment in time, it looks like there's a correlation with elite (cardio) sport, unconfirmed as to being causative, or mechanism of causation - theoretically something to do with prolonged/repeated oxygen depletion of motor neurons at extremes of exertion?
AFAIK there's no correlation with boxers and MND - obviously, elite athletes, though not so much cardio; and significantly more traumatic brain injury.

I've conflated cte and mnd, my bad