In 2003, England won the Rugby World Cup. Steve Thompson was there, in England's front row, at the heart of the match, and at the heart of the scrum - one of sport's most destructive, repetitive impacts. In 2003, England won the Rugby World Cup. Steve Thompson was there, in England’s front row, at the heart of the match, and at the heart of the scrum – one of sport’s most destructive, repetitive impacts. But the triumphs came at a cost. The amount of head bangs I had in training. I was known for it. ‘Oh, he’s having a little sleep, he’ll get up in a minute.’” He remembers all the gruelling sessions on the scrum machines. “There’s so much pressure. They aren’t moving, they’ve got pegs in it, they’ve got people stood on it, and you drive into it, all that weight coming through.” He’d push until the point when his head started to go. “And suddenly, as the pressure comes off, you start getting the light, the little white dots, and you don’t know where you are for a few seconds.” He asks: "In France, they have heart scans and, if players' hearts aren't quite right, they're not allowed to play. What's different with a brain?" I did my job. I trained as hard as I possibly could. It's other people's jobs to look after you." Concussion protocol 'a little start'

When I came out and told people, how many people wanted to employ me? To them, I'm broken," he says. It's not until you're there yourself that you understand. You don't feel like you deserve to be on this earth, and you don't feel like you deserve to drag everyone else down." We've just got to be proud of these little victories to make the game of rugby a lot safer and for everyone to keep enjoying it.

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He added: "You know, I am more scared of the highs than the lows. When I'm high, I feel brilliant and then suddenly I have to let everyone down because I can't do what I have promised. If you are affected by any issues relating to this story then please go to BBC Action line for information and support. As he says in the film "this degenerative disease is caused by multiple head impacts, known as sub-concussions". Northampton Saints, where Thompson spent the bulk of his professional career, said: "Player welfare is always a priority. Concussion protocols have been implemented and followed in a timely manner… to ensure appropriate monitoring for and management of head injuries." As ever with the brain, there is much we cannot know for sure. These diagnoses are a deeply unsettling development in players so young. The gathering of what science likes to call “hard data” takes many years and many studies, which is small comfort to those living with any repercussions in the here and now. It was not until 2019 that science established a raised incidence of mortality by neurodegenerative disease among professional footballers of the 20th century. Rugby is likely looking at a stronger association. Most players, we must hope, will be unaffected. The reality is we will start to find out only as they age. And, even then, is any risk simply a function of playing the sport or of other factors?

The front-row forward played in every England match as they won the 2003 World Cup but told the BBC in December 2020 he could not remember any of the games. The Concussion Legacy Project will use his brain to research chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which can only be diagnosed after death.But a significant gap continues to exist between the official concussion-driven stats and the as-yet unknown consequences in later life of the cumulative intensity of impacts in the elite game. Drake, and other groups such as Progressive Rugby, are not involved in the ongoing legal case being pursued by almost 200 ex-union players but do have longer-term concerns for the well-being of a generation of ex-pros. “Concussion is a fairly convenient way of dismissing the problem,” suggests Drake. ‘You can say ‘a player seems to have recovered from a concussion’ without knowing what is going on in his head now or, potentially, in the future.”

Blink has landed a "moving and brave" memoir from rugby player Steve Thompson, who has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia as a result of collisions, concussions and injuries from playing the sport. Unforgettable is part sports memoir - with stories contributed by his world-cup winning teammates and his former manager, Sir Clive Woodward - and part raw human storytelling. In it, Steve will make memories for himself and for his children, and will relive the biggest battle of his life, with his toughest opponent - his own mind. In 2020 he was one of a group of players who launched a legal case to sue rugby's governing bodies for negligence.It's up to my generation to pledge our brains so researchers can develop better treatments and ways to make the game safer." The film documents all of this - from Thompson and his family trying to come to terms with his diagnosis, to him lending his voice to the fight to make rugby safer.

During the film, he describes some of the negative responses that action elicited, including being trolled by rugby fans. The disease can only be diagnosed in a brain after death, but some experts believe if history of exposure is evaluated, it is reasonable to conclude that the risk increases.

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The Concussion Legacy Project is a new brain bank formed by the Concussion Legacy Foundation UK (CLF) and the Jeff Astle Foundation, named after the former England and West Brom striker who died in 2002. A re-examination of Astle's brain in 2014 found he had died from CTE. Before speaking out in 2020, Thompson was diagnosed by neurologists at King's College, London, with early-onset dementia and probable CTE. He is also disappointed by the response from rugby authorities - including the Rugby Football Union (RFU), which is the game's governing body in England. Drake was initially motivated by the sight of a concussed Hugo Lloris, playing for Tottenham, staying on the field with a concussion in 2013. At first he wondered whether his mission might be akin to inviting a big tobacco company to do more lung cancer research. Now after the Thompson film – “Maybe it was some sort of watershed” – he hopes more people will listen. The Drake Foundation, he adds, is branching out from sport and looking to extend their head injury focus to abusive domestic situations and the prison population. Just let that sink in. Rugby players are increasingly sharing a similar ball park to battered partners and violent inmates. Risky business or not, that is a perception no self-respecting sport can afford to ignore. I came across Dawn and [executive director of CLF UK] Dr Adam [White] and they put everything in place.