Evidence is growing that playing contact sports can lead to long-term brain injuries

Meeting Nelson Mandela should be a high point in anyone’s life. But Alix Popham, a Welsh former rugby player who once met the legendary president of South Africa before a match, has no memory of the encounter. Later that day during the game, he was struck so hard on the head that he suffered a severe concussion, an injury in which his brain was thrown around inside his skull.Concussions can cause someone to see stars or slur their speech. They might also be knocked unconscious, as in Mr Popham’s case, and robbed of what may have become cherished memories. But Mr Popham (pictured, in red and crashing into an opponent’s arm) believes that the thousands of repeated knocks to his head over the course of his rugby career have robbed him of far more. He now gets lost easily, hates background noise and, in a fit of rage, once ripped off a banister upstairs in his home. He is 43 and has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia.