A study has found that 31 rugby league players in Australia have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC).
The findings, based on examinations of donated brains at the Australian Sports Brain Bank, revealed that players in their 20s, 30s, and 40s had CTE. Of the 51 rugby league players' brains donated for the study, 31 showed signs of the disease, which can only be definitively diagnosed after death.
The donors had participated at various levels of the sport, from amateur to professional. Among those identified in the study were NRL star player and coach Paul Green, and Manly Sea Eagles player Keith Titmuss, who was 20 when he died in 2020.
The ABC reported that these statistics are based on the first 150 brain examinations of individuals who played contact sports, completed at the brain bank. Molecular biologist and data scientist Jennifer Cropley presented the findings at the International Sports Concussion Conference in Melbourne on Tuesday.
Domestic media outlets, including The Australian newspaper, reported that reporters were barred from attending the conference.