Former France and Sale Sharks forward Sebastien Chabal has revealed amnesia has left him without a single memory of his rugby career.
The 47-year-old, capped 62 times by France, earned the nickname Caveman through his professional career off the back of his rugged appearance and reputation as one of the game’s hardest players.
Chabal represented France at two World Cups but cannot remember any of his career highlights or major life events – including the birth of his daughter – as a result of repeated head trauma.
“I don’t remember a single second of a rugby match I played,” Chabal told the YouTube channel Legend.
“I don’t remember a single one of the 62 Marseillaises [French national anthem] I experienced.
“What would you do, my memory won’t return. I have a few childhood memories. I think it’s because people told me about them. I don’t have this memory of past moments.
“When I talk about it at home with my wife, I tell her that I have the impression that it wasn’t me who played rugby.
Chabal reached the World Cup semi-finals with France in 2003 and 2007
“And since I [have] always thought I was a bit of an impostor, I got there a bit by chance. With the fact of not remembering, I have the impression that it wasn’t me.”
More than 1000 former amateur and professional rugby union and rugby league players have now joined a concussion lawsuit against the sports’ governing bodies, the law firm representing them said last week.
Rylands Garth said it now represents more than 725 former union players and more than 280 former league players in a case that began more than four years ago.
