Government launches inquiry into link between sport and dementia

Sign up to our free sport newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxing Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It comes at a time when legal actions across football and both rugby codes are being considered or have been launched, and follows the 2019 FIELD study which found professional footballers were three and a half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the population. England 1966 World Cup winner Sir Bobby Charlton’s dementia diagnosis was confirmed last year, with four other members of the side - Nobby Stiles, Jack Charlton, Martin Peters and Ray Wilson suffering with dementia at the time of their deaths. DCMS committee chair Julian Knight said: “This inquiry will consider scientific evidence to link sport with the incidence of long-term brain injury. “We’re seeing a number of cases involving brain injury in sport likely to reach the doors of our law courts and we will also look at the implications for sport in the longer term of any successful legal claim.” A group of former rugby union players has launched an action against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union.