All Blacks great reveals what influenced him to be part of concussion lawsuit and opens up on living with early onset dementia
Carl Hayman was diagnosed with early onset dementia in 2021.
Legendary All Blacks tighthead prop Carl Hayman has revealed the reasons which influenced him to join a concussion lawsuit against rugby union’s authorities.
He is among more than 1,100 former professional and amateur rugby union and league players, alongside the likes of England 2003 Rugby World Cup winners Steve Thompson, Mark Regan and Phil Vickery as well as former Wales stars Gavin Henson, Alix Popham, Colin Charvis and Ryan Jones, who are currently involved in a major class action lawsuit against World Rugby, the RFU, and the WRU, over allegations that the governing bodies failed to protect them from developing neurological conditions in later life.
Hayman, who made 46 Test appearances for the All Blacks between 2001 and 2007 and also represented the Highlanders, Newcastle and Toulon at club level, said after suffering from insomnia, headaches and emotional variations in his behaviour, he received little help in New Zealand.
A mutual friend then put him in touch with Popham which led to Hayman discovering that they were suffering from similar symptoms.
“I didn’t really know what Alex had gone through at that stage,” Hayman told the Times Sport podcast. “And we were just having a chat, and it was almost like a copy and paste what Alex was saying.
‘Exactly what’s been going on with me’
“I was just going like, ‘Well, that’s almost copy and paste, exactly what’s been going on with me’.
“And at that time, I was back in New Zealand. And I was going through my doctor and saying, ‘Look, I’m having all of these things happening to me. Headaches, short-term memory issues, emotional variability’.
“At that stage, I wasn’t sleeping very well at all. In fact, I pretty much couldn’t really sleep. I used to get up at that stage, I was training quite a lot.
“And if I couldn’t sleep, I’d just get up and ride my bike. So, I’d be up at two o’clock in the morning and I’d go for a 20-mile bike ride!
“And it was just like, it was bordering on like semi-insanity, but it was just like, I was just really starting to lose the fabric a wee bit. I really couldn’t sleep.
“I used to have quite a lot of head spins, like dizziness and sort of just get lightheaded and feel like sort of falling over.
“So, it was a really odd time, and I couldn’t get anything in New Zealand. I couldn’t see anyone. I’d suggest that my doctor put a claim into ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) saying, ‘Look, I think we need to get Carl to see a specialist on what he’s going through’.
“And it just came back with, ‘We’ve declined Carl’s application, but we need more information’.”
Ex-All Black Carl Hayman joins dementia lawsuit
Popham then suggested that he travel to the United Kingdom in 2021 where he eventually received his diagnosis after undergoing large-scale testing.
‘I just wanted to know what was going on’
“And at that stage, Alix said to me, ‘There’s medical professionals over here who’d be willing to see you’. And I just wanted to know what was going on,” added Hayman.
“And so, at one stage here in New Zealand, I sort of had a decision to make whether I just go, ‘Oh, well, that’s just life and that’s how it is. And I just got to move on and get on with life’ or I can go over to the UK. And my partner at the time was from Hereford.
“So, we timed it to go and see her family and then went into London and basically went through an array of what they call psychometric testing.
“I just explained what had been going on. And then with a brain scan and then I sort of left it for a while and they said, ‘Oh, you know, we need to go away and digest a lot of this’.
“And I didn’t really know what to think at the time.”
The 46-year-old was eventually diagnosed with early-onset dementia and probable CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). He explained what led to him to join the lawsuit against the game’s governing bodies.
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“The first part of it was I wanted to know what was wrong with me,” said Hayman. “And I couldn’t do that in New Zealand. There was no way that, and I tried numerous times to go through the avenues in New Zealand. And so, when that was presented to me, (Popham) saying, ‘Hey, come over, these people are going to look at you’.
“That was a big plus for me. And then it was the fact of, I think for the other players, like I had two choices really, when I joined this (the lawsuit), I could’ve joined it as an anonymous (participant), that I wouldn’t be involved in any press but then the more I thought about, I was like, ‘Well, I’ve actually got a duty to other rugby players that by putting myself out there, that things will be put in place to make them safer’.
“So hopefully, another generation of players that they’ll be safer.
“So, they won’t be chucked back out in the field after getting knocked out. They won’t have to play 30 plus games a year (and) that there’s some robust monitoring around there.
“You know, the amount of contacts these guys are getting in the season and in the end, there’s support for them.”