The scientific controversy over head injuries in sport

7am

At a Senate committee last year, the NRL and Football Australia acknowledged the link between head injuries in contact sports and the neurodegenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

But a core member of the NRL’s concussion research group is also one of the most outspoken critics of the link between repeated head injury and CTE, calling it an “invented disease … conjured out of thin air”.

His views corroborate the Australian NRL’s multimillion-dollar research program into former elite-level rugby league players, which to date has concluded there is no link between concussion and depression or other cognitive problems.

So how does the NRL justify advancing a position that most scientists don’t agree with?

Today, journalist and contributor to The Saturday Paper Wendy Carlisle, on the brain epidemic killing ex-athletes and why the science is still being contested.

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Guest: Journalist and contributor to The Saturday Paper, Wendy Carlisle.