‘It’s almost like child abuse’: Doctor calls for ALL contact sports to be banned in Australia – and says rugby and AFL won’t exist in a generation
- Dr Bennet Omalu believes children shouldn’t play contact sport until they’re 18
- Omalu found CTE in athletes, which involves brain damage from concussions
- He said that rugby and AFL were so dangerous they’d be banned in a generation
- Omalu discovered the brain disease in 2002 after NFL player Mike Webster died
The doctor who inspired the movie Concussion has called for all contact sports to be banned in Australia – and says rugby and AFL won’t exist within a generation.
Doctor Bennet Omalu said it was ‘almost like child abuse’ for parents to allow children under the age of 18 to play sports that exposed them to heavy hits.
The Nigerian-American forensic pathologist is famous for discovering the first cases of brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in American footballers.
‘In the next generation or two, mankind won’t be playing sports like rugby or football or ice hockey or mixed martial arts,’ Dr Omalu told the Sun Herald.
Dr Bennet Omalu, (pictured) is calling for rugby and AFL in Australia to be banned after head injuries sustained in the game can result in permanent brain damage
He said that players in violent sports such as rugby and football were consistently receiving blows to the head every match, heavily impacting on their brains.
‘It just doesn’t make sense to be damaging the brain of a human being. In a game like rugby, in every play there is a blow or impact to the head,’ he said.
‘It’s almost like child abuse, to intentionally expose a child to injury. It is not right.’
Dr Omalu explained that the brain was 60-80 per cent water, and gets thrown around in the skull with every movement.
He said the ‘very sensitive and vulnerable organ’ needed to be protected, revealing a game of football in America exposed a child to 50 blows – some as strong as a car hitting a brick wall at 50km/hr.
He described that players in violent sports such as rugby and football were consistently receiving blows the head during every match (pictured Michael Morgan knocked down during State of Origin)
In June, two former NRL players were also discovered to have had evidence of CTE in their brains, something Dr Omalu said wasn’t surprising.
Dr Omalu first discovered CTE in 2002 after completing an autopsy on Pittsburgh Steelers NFL star Mike Webster following his death from a heart attack.
The research confirmed that concussions incurred from playing football could result in brain damage including dementia and depression.
Webster’s behaviour before his death had become so erratic he spent all his money, forgot how to eat and even became homeless, prompting Dr Omalu to explore what had caused his downfall.
Following the discovery of CTE in Webster, a number of other American athletes who had CTE took their own lives after exhibiting strange behaviour.
Dr Omalu’s groundbreaking research was turned into the 2015 film, Concussion, starring Will Smith.
Dr Omalu’s groundbreaking research was turned into the 2015 film, Concussion, starring Will Smith (pictured centre with Omalu)