A GROUP of former international players are planning legal action against rugby authorities for negligence over brain injuries, the firm leading the case announced yesterday.

Steve Thompson, who says he cannot remember being part of England’s 2003 World Cup triumph, is part of a test group for a potentially much larger action along with former England player Michael Lipman and ex-Wales international Alix Popham.

The planned action is against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union, for “failure to protect [the claimants] from the risks caused by concussions.”

The players have also created 15 commandments which they feel World Rugby should adopt to make the game safer.

Rylands Law’s Richard Boardman says he is representing more than 100 players whose ages range from their 20s to their 50s, many of whom are showing symptoms of neurological problems.

“The vast majority of the former players we represent love the game and don’t want to see it harmed in any way,” Boardman said.

“They just want to make it safer so current and future generations don’t end up like them.

“This is why we’re asking World Rugby to make a number of immediate, relatively low-cost changes.

“The obvious first step is for World Rugby, RFU and WRU to stop being in denial and acknowledge that there is a problem.”

Thompson, 42, was diagnosed with early onset dementia and probable CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy — a progressive brain condition thought to be caused by repeated blows to the head) in November.

“I have no recollection of winning the World Cup in 2003 or of being in Australia for the tournament,” he revealed.

“Knowing what I know now, I wish that I had never turned professional. I went from working on a building site and training twice a week to training every day, sometimes twice a day.

“Many of those training sessions were contact sessions using a scrummage machine and I would be in the thick of things, with all the pressure pushed on me.

“It was not uncommon for me to be left dazed, seeing white spots and not knowing where I was for a few seconds. Sometimes I would pass out completely.”

Popham, 41, was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, early onset dementia and probable CTE in April.

“Mel and I only married last year, we were hoping to have another child too, but that’s just not going to be possible now,” he said.

“We can’t do that knowing my diagnosis and what this means.”

Lipman, 40, was likewise diagnosed with early onset dementia and probable CTE three weeks ago.

“This is something I will be battling forever and ultimately I won’t win,” he said.

“I am a walking time bomb. I feel like I am treading on eggshells with myself.”

The players’ 15 commandments include a call for World Rugby to acknowledge that playing the game can lead to CTE and other neurodegenerative diseases; the abolition of zero-hour contracts which compel players to play when injured, a limit to the number of contact sessions permitted in training, better sideline testing and more considerate use of substitutions.

World Rugby said it would not comment on “speculation,” but that it takes player safety very seriously and implements injury-prevention strategies based on the latest available knowledge, research and evidence.

The RFU and WRU had not commented as the Star went to press.