Watching the England Rugby World Cup winner, Steve Thompson, open up about the permanent brain damage he’s sustained was pretty chilling stuff.
For a guy of just 42 to not even be able to remember any of the games he played in back in 2003 is horrendous.
The fear he has for himself and his family was obvious.
There are a few sports which have to face up to the issues surrounding head injuries but for rugby it really does feel particularly bleak.
The potential financial cost to the game from legal action is obvious but from a sporting point of view, you do wonder how rugby can adapt and survive.
Collisions and physicality are such integral parts of rugby and how would you even start to take them out? Could it end up being touch rugby?!
These are the conversations that need to take place, though.
Steve Thompson was honest enough to say that he wouldn’t have played the game if he’d known what the consequences would be but there are plenty of others who would take their chances.
There shouldn’t be a choice, though. Every sport has to have protocols in place for head injuries that are taken out of the athletes’ hands.
We’d all sign up for the sort of hip injuries that myself and Andy Murray will take into later life if the trade-off was trophies and Olympic medals.
But no sport is worth the devastation of brain damage in your early 40s.
My first reaction when I heard breakdancing had made it into the Paris Olympics was to laugh.
But if you’re at the top of a proper sport then it really isn’t very funny.
Plenty of high-profile squash players have come out to criticise it and you can totally understand why.
It’s a bit of an insult really and, if I put myself in their shoes, I’d be heart-broken.
People who back the move have said breakdancing was a big success in the Youth Olympics and that it will help attract the attention of a younger audience.
I don’t buy that at all. It’s not as if the Olympics struggles for publicity or popularity!
This is an unnecessary gimmick and it will be a turn-off for people who want to see the Games preserved for sports which have the Olympics as their pinnacle.
In last week’s column I explained that a curling bubble is going to be set-up in Calgary for some major men’s events next April, including their World Championship.
As a follow-up, two women’s Grand Slams have now been tagged on to the end, which is great news.
They will be the Players’ Championship and the Champions’ Cup, both of which we’ve qualified for.
The plan for our Worlds is that they will still be held in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
I can understand that the organisers are keen to hold on to the hope that they can go-ahead there as planned because this is a new location and it will be a really big deal for them.
But there may well come a point that a decision has to be made to switch it to the Canadian bubble and common sense would tell you that is the safety net plan B they have in mind.
