A leading neuroscientist has argued that professional rugby’s concussion stand-down period needs to be more than doubled after the sudden death of former Māori All Black Shane Christie.
Christie, 39, died suddenly in Nelson on Wednesday morning. Friends of Christie told the Herald it was believed hisdeath was self-inflicted and came after a period during which concern over his wellbeing had increased.
The former Tasman Mako captain and Highlanders Super Rugby flanker retired from professional rugby in 2017 due to severe post-concussion symptoms.
Christie suffered his first concussion during tackling practice at lunchtime at high school.
He suffered more than 10 during his career, including head knocks in 2016 that he never fully recovered from. His last two came during training sessions after collisions he last year described to the Herald as “really light and I couldn’t handle them”.
Post-career, Christie became an advocate for raising greater awareness around the impacts of repeated head injuries and its links to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
Shane Christie represented the Māori All Blacks and All Blacks Sevens before his retirement from professional rugby.
Professor of neuroscience at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Dr Doug King told Newstalk ZB’s Sportstalk that education about concussion was present, but there wasn’t enough of it.
“I keep referring to it being a 100-metre sprint. We’re only at about 60 metres at the moment, I reckon,” King said.
He said while there had been a shift in the way concussions are viewed since the professionalism of rugby union, governing bodies aren’t treating head knocks with the justice they deserve.
“The problem is that everyone thinks that it’s okay to go out there and play and get bashed around.”
King said research conducted by multiple leading concussion experts has identified that a minimum of 28 days for any concussion was the required stand-down period before professional rugby players should go back to training.
The current concussion stand-down period under World Rugby is 12 days. In community rugby, the minimum return-to-play timeframe is 21 days.
“I’m of the personal belief that if you’ve got a broken arm, you’ve got a cast on it, we can X-ray it and see that it doesn’t heal. If we’re going to treat a brain like a broken arm, then why don’t we just take the cast off at 10 days? Because we all know we’re going to re-break it,” King said.
He said there had been recent advances in what CTE is and how it affects people, but the difficulty was trying to identify it from an early age.
“That’s what everyone’s now scrambling for ... I think we need to even go a step further and look at how we can manage the concussions previously.”
Christie’s close friend and teammate Billy Guyton was the first New Zealand rugby player to be diagnosed with CTE after a brain study was carried out following his death in 2023. Guyton also died of a suspected suicide.
King questioned how a professional sportsperson’s brain could recover quicker than an amateur’s brain.
“How can you put these people back out on the field sooner at the professional level? And don’t tell me it’s because there’s doctors monitoring it. They still take the knocks, they still take the bangs.
“At the amateur level, we can put them through doctors and everything else and they’re required to take longer to recover.
“You can’t keep running from it ... You’re going to put these people out there, you’re going to play them and you’re going to make money off them, then you need to look after them for whole of life.”
Benjamin Plummer is an Auckland-based reporter who covers sport and breaking news. He has worked for the Herald since 2022.
