FORMER Great Britain international Josh Jones has said that he contemplated suicide during his career due to the effects of head injuries.

Jones, 32, retired in 2023 due to concussion issues and was diagnosed the following year with probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease.

He believes this was caused by blows to the head playing rugby league and is part of the concussion lawsuit against the Rugby Football League.

The former St Helens, Salford Red Devils and Huddersfield Giants forward told the BBC: “The day before the start of a season, I was contemplating ending my life, and that is how dark it got.

“I sat there for hours contemplating (it) because I didn’t like the person I was becoming. I felt a burden to my family.

“It was awful, and the scariest thing was, that evening (wife) Olivia managed to calm me down and bring me home… and I played the following day.”

Jones said he suffered concussions regularly in training and matches: “Things progressively started to get worse – headaches, brain fog, neck pain, eye pain. I’m sensitive to light and to noise, anxiety, depression.”

He is among more than 1,000 former players from both rugby codes who claim that playing the sports caused them brain damage, and that the respective governing bodies failed to protect them from the risk of repeated head impacts.

The RFL, alongside World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union, deny liability.

The legal action, which was launched against union authorities in 2020 with rugby league players joining the following year, remains in the pre-trial phase, which has been marked by disputes over the disclosure of evidence as well as the shape a trial should take.

Last month Rylands Garth, the law firm representing the former players, lost an appeal against a ruling ordering them to disclose all medical records, and the case is due to be reviewed again in March.

Jones added: “I knew I’d have sore shoulders, a bad back, sore knees, maybe arthritis, those sort of physical things. I never knew that I would be left like this, and be living with this neurological damage that the game’s given me.

“For me, it’s not the game, it’s the governance of the game that’s the problem. And to add insult to injury, to be abandoned from the sport – it’s not right. 

“The governing body has failed to protect its players, and something needs to be done.”

In response, the RFL said that it “takes player safety and welfare extremely seriously and it is always extremely sad to hear of any health difficulties experienced by former players.

“Rugby league as a sport invests significantly into scientific research, and continues to evolve its approach to help best prevent and manage concussion injuries.

“As such the sport has never been safer in this regard. The RFL has developed a clear action plan including a target to reduce concussions across the sport by 30 percent and is on track to meet these targets.”

This Super League season, the instrumented mouthguards used by every player will trigger in real time when a high-level head impact has occurred, allowing them to be immediately withdrawn and assessed for injury.

Abi Ekoku, the interim RFL chief executive, said: “The introduction of the instrumented mouthguard triggers is another welcome addition to rugby league’s ongoing work to be a leader in our approach to head-injury prevention. 

“We will continue to use medical evidence and research to ensure rugby league is safer than it has ever been before.”

The RFL also stressed that help is available to current and former players through the Rugby League Cares charity.