Retired All Blacks prop Carl Hayman has revealed his anguish following the recent tragic death of Shane Christie.
Retired All Blacks prop Carl Hayman has revealed his anguish following the recent tragic death of Shane Christie.
The ex-Maori All Black and Highlanders flanker, who struggled to deal with the impact of on-field head injuries, is alleged to have taken his own life last month.
Hayman, the 45-year-old Opunake farmer in New Zealand’s North Island, also struggles with neurodegenerative symptoms and had been recently in touch with the 39-year-old Christie.
News of Christie’s death, following on from the 2023 suicide of another former player, Billy Guyton, at the age of 33, shook Hayman hard.
he revealed: “I talked to Shane about two weeks ago. He seemed in good spirits. I certainly understand what Shane was going through.
“Gagged…”
It’s been a shock to everyone. I knew Shane was having issues. I felt like part of me had died when I heard the news. For a number of days, I couldn’t think or make any decisions. I disappeared to the farm as I knew lots of people would be trying to get hold of me. I put the radio on, but forgot it would be on the national news.
“It actually made me break down and cry. I sat there and thought, ‘S***’ – the reality of what had happened hit me pretty badly. We have had two players in New Zealand now who have taken their own lives because of the impact of head injuries.”
Christie had apparently reached out to NZR for help, but the report subsequently done on head injuries in the game was confidential and has only emerged in public since the death of the former back-rower.
Hayman was distraught that Christie felt “gagged” and couldn’t speak openly about the information in the report.
“Shane felt a real duty to the players to put things in place so these problems could hopefully be stopped,” said the former Toulon front-rower.
He didn’t manage to get that information released. I believe he was also gagged from talking about it. You just wonder why. He only had the best interests of the players at heart. For me, it’s almost criminal players have put forward safety recommendations and this information has not been released or acted on.
“This has to be a wake-up call for rugby. It’s a worldwide issue, and yet we are still having the same message coming from the game’s authorities. They need to talk to the players who are struggling to find out what they need rather than gaslighting them and keeping with the same narrative.”
Hundreds of ex Players have taken legal action against World Rugby (as well as the RFU/WRU) over head injuries that have allegedly resulted in neurodegenerative problems. Hayman himself began to notice, he was having fatigue management problems when coaching at Pau in France, claiming he was even struggling to remember the names of his children.
He now wants the rugby authorities to be more open about the risks involved in playing the sport.
Rugby could have put this behind it a long time ago and not dragged itself through the mud,” he said.
“The longer the game kicks the can down the road, the longer it will be before it is able to move on. We need an acknowledgement of what the risks are by playing rugby and a plan in place to deal with them. In the meantime, rugby is losing out.”
