John Langford: ‘If I forget something, is it because I’ve been concussed or old age?’

In an excerpt from Saturday's Examiner Sport big interview with former Munster man John Langford, he details some of the concussions he experienced on the field and their aftereffects

John Langford pictured in 2001. Picture: INPHO/Billy Stickland

Former Munster star John Langford says he worries lapses in memory could be consequences of his time playing rugby.

Recent harrowing revelations by the likes of Steve Thompson and Michael Lipman are a cruel reminder that this came at a cost, while Langford played with Elton Flatley, the Australian out-half who was forced to retire in 2006 after continued blurred vision due to several concussions.

“It is terrible to hear about all this,” he says in an Irish Examiner big interview to be published on Saturday. 

“I actually had a few significant concussions. In 1993, I got kicked in the head while playing against the Blue Bulls at Loftus (South Africa). Knocked me into tomorrow. I was put into a hotel; it was our last match and all I can remember is the disappointment that I couldn’t go out on the lash with the boys before we flew back.

“Our team manager stayed with me that night to monitor me. I remember I rang home to tell them I was all ok.

“The next time, I remember getting knocked out… so, sometimes you see stars coming into a ruck or whatever. I had countless of those moments. But properly, I was playing in my first test against the All Blacks and ran into Craig Dowd’s knee.

I remember walking to a lineout in the house of pain, Dunedin. I could not remember the lineout calls. I just shouted, ‘don’t call it to me, I can’t remember the calls.’

“My biggest fear at the time was not being able to play in South Africa the following week. I went anyway and played; it was actually a record loss.”

Is it something that affects him now? He responds that a friend, the journalist Peter Fitzsimons, is a big promoter of the impacts of concussion and making the game safer. Langford reads his stuff. He has watched the movie Concussion. He is glad the sport has started to take the issue seriously. He moves on.

A few days later, the phone rings. ‘Hi mate, I’ve been thinking a lot about that question…”

When we met, he explained what happened to him back then. He never really explained how he feels about it now. That is troubling him, because the truth is, he and his wife think about it a lot.

“It is something we worry about recently. I know it is in the back of Nicole’s head…

“It makes you think, every time I forget something, is that because I’ve been concussed or old age? Is that football related or what? I always joke to my team I work with when it happens; I have had too many knocks to the head. But there may be an element of truth there as well.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I am going to talk to Peter Fitzsimons who has done a lot of work around this. I don’t know if there is anything I can do. Maybe a cognitive test, similar to a dementia test…

“The sooner you start looking at it, the more evidence they can collect and assess. I guess it might help down the line.

“I am happy to donate my brain, or what is left of it, to science. I hope that helps.”

- Read the full interview in Saturday's Irish Examiner.