Scotsman’s Lamont piece ‘changed concussion focus’

Rory Lamont in action for Scotland in 2012. Picture: Jane Barlow

Dr Willie Stewart, a world-leading neuropathologist based in Glasgow, has claimed that concussion injuries are now being taken more seriously by world and national sporting bodies and government after a series of articles published in The Scotsman earlier this year, sparked by the testimony of former Scotland international Rory Lamont.

After being forced to retire from rugby at the age of 30, Lamont first spoke out in The Scotsman in July in an effort to warn rugby players against what he said was a common belief that concussion was not a serious injury. He revealed that players were deliberately misleading club medics in tests and hiding symptoms from coaches in an effort to stay on the field of play after suffering a head knock or to return to play quickly.

Reflecting this week on the response since that article in July, Dr Stewart said: “The whole conversation on this topic on this side of the Atlantic changed when The Scotsman published Rory’s interview. He came in to the lab expressing an intelligent, reasonably informed view from the players’ side, but like many people at all levels in sport the reality was he was hugely under-informed about what brain injuries are.”

Dr Stewart added: “A lot has happened in the last six months. It’s been great to see so many people and media organisations taking it on, but I come back to the fact that this was an issue bubbling along without any real pick-up until Rory’s story in The Scotsman.

“The forward movement in the last six months has been dramatic.”

• Lamont - ‘I was forced to play injured