Rugby star S\u00e9bastien Chabal won two Six Nations titles with France, reached a World Cup semifinal and played 62 times for his nation as a powerful forward.<\/p>\n
But he does not remember any of it due to memory loss stemming from the concussions he sustained as a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t remember a single second of a rugby match I played. And I don\u2019t remember a single one of the 62 Marseillaises (national anthems) I experienced,\u201d Chabal said in an interview with the Legend show on YouTube. \u201cI don\u2019t have the memory of past moments.”<\/p>\n
During his career, he also won the English title with Sale and scored six tries for France. He was a part of the French side which won the Six Nations Grand Slam in 2010, and his thunderous tackling led French crowds to shout \u201cChabaaaaalll\u201d in a deep tone in admiration of his prowess.<\/p>\n
None of it registers with him.<\/p>\n
“When I talk about it at home with my wife, I tell her that it feels like I wasn\u2019t the one who played rugby,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that it wasn\u2019t me who played rugby, especially because I don\u2019t remember the moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘The Caveman’<\/p>\n
The 47-year-old became a household name in France and in rugby circles abroad because of his bushy black beard, his hard tackling and the icy stare he gave opponents.<\/p>\n
His appearance and his intimidating presence on the rugby field earned him nicknames such as \u201cThe Caveman,\u201d \u201cThe Anesthetist\u201d and \u201cHannibal Lecter\u201d. It also earned him considerable endorsement deals and says he earned annual income up to \u20ac800,000 (NZ$1.55 million).<\/p>\n
He was also quick to rebuke media who tried to interview him in English during the 2007 Rugby World Cup, which was held in France.<\/p>\n
Even though he spoke very good English from his time with Sale near Manchester from 2004-09, he would issue a blunt retort saying \u201cwe are in France, we speak French\u201d.<\/p>\n
Chabal’s memory loss is so profound that he says he does not even remember the birth of his daughter and has hazy recollections of his own childhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t remember many things. I have two or three childhood memories, but only just,” he said. \u201dBut I’m not even sure I remember them, because I was told about them.”<\/p>\n
Chabal’s international career peaked with a 2007 World Cup semifinal and his 14-year club career ended in 2014 with Lyon.<\/p>\n
Although he is now speaking about his concussion, he has not sought medical help.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo see a doctor, what for?\u201d he said. \u201cMy memory won\u2019t come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rugby lawsuit<\/p>\n
Concussions have become a major issue in soccer and rugby in both its formats, the 15-a-side union and the 13-a-side league.<\/p>\n
British law firm Rylands Garth said more than 500 former players are taking legal action against sports governing bodies on claims they suffered brain injuries during their careers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby star S\u00e9bastien Chabal won two Six Nations titles with France, reached a World Cup semifinal and played…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,9043],"class_list":{"0":"post-13426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-uk-europe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114324386898931006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}