(ANSA) - LONDON, JUL 17 - Fears and anguish for a life that literally "is falling apart", inevitably day after day, at the age of 41: the dramatic confession is by the ex-captain of the Welsh national rugby team, Ryan Jones, to cuipochi months ago she was diagnosed with stage-onset dementia.
Only the latest testimony of a long series of former professional rugby players who, following the violent blows suffered during their career, have developed more or less aggressive forms of neurodegenerative brain disease.
"I feel my world is falling apart - Jones' alTimes tale, 75 caps with Wales, and Lions team member on the 2005 tour - I'm really scared because I have three children, and three more from my partner, and I want to be a great dad. I've lived 15 years of my life as a superhero, but I'm not. I don't know what the future holds. "
An uncertainty exploded last December when Jones was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative brain disease that can occur after repeated head injury.
"I am the product of an environment that is all about human performance.
I would just like to lead a happy, healthy and normal life, but I feel that something has been taken away from me, and there is nothing I can do.
I can't train harder, I can't be a referee, I don't know what the rules of the game are anymore. "
Having retired in 2015, Jones has also suffered from depression in recent years, before starting to suffer from memory problems, more and more serious." terrified because I don't know how I'll be in two or three years.
Nobody can tell me if these episodes of memory loss will last a week or two, or maybe they will be permanent. "
An unstoppable decline, in the face of which Jones, as in his condition, is powerless.
Also for this reason the former captain of Wales asks for greater responsibility for the sports fans: "Rugby is walking towards the abyss, with its eyes closed: it is a catastrophic situation".
Over the course of the month, the Alzheimer's Society partnered with the Professional Rugby Association to provide information and support to past or present players or managers diagnosed with dementia.
(HANDLE).