CTE risk among rugby players increases with length of career, study finds

England's Courtney Lawes tackled by South Africa's Pieter-Steph du Toit (left) and Damian de Allende.

A player's risk of developing an incurable brain disease uniquely associated with repeated head impacts is relative to the length of their career, a new study indicates.

Each additional year of playing was found to increase the risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) by 14 per cent, in a study of the brains of 31 former players whose average career length was 18 years.