Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is an elite rugby player who won the World Cup with England in 2003.

Steve Thompson's tragedy is that just two decades later, he can't remember a thing about that sporting triumph, nor the celebrations which followed it.

Thompson suffers from dementia, likely as a result of a rugby career, which for him, as a hooker in the scrum,

involved repeated high-impact collisions and countless concussions.

Twenty years ago, head injuries were regarded as nothing more

than a part of the game. Now, thanks to advances in neurological science, it is beyond doubt that

contact sports like rugby and American football have done irreparable damage to the brains

of countless young athletes. Today, Steve Thompson

lives with regret and guilt. Regret that he devoted his young life to a sport which will

progressively rob him of quality of life and guilt that his wife, Steph and his four children,

will have to deal with his decline.

With the help of a ghostwriter, he's now given a frank account of his life, Unforgotten.

Will his story help push the sporting authorities to put player welfare before profit?

Well, Steve Thompson and his wife, Steph, join me now. Welcome,

both of you to Hard Talk. If I may, I want to begin with that moment when you were diagnosed.

Here you were an elite former sportsman rugby player told that you had early onset dementia.

And for both of you, I imagine that was an extraordinary moment.

Steve, what was your feeling at that time?

Relief.

I must admit at first, because so many things have been going on

and sort of I'd changed and

and so many different things were just sort of happening in life that just didn't seem right so

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