Former England national rugby union captain and the 2003 World Cup champion Lewis Moody has revealed that he has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). In an interview recorded during a BBC discussion, in which he sat beside his wife Annie, he publicly announced the news.<\/p>\n
Symptoms appeared several months ago \u2013 a noticeable weakness in his shoulder that did not disappear after a course of physiotherapy.<\/p>\n
After being referred to a shoulder specialist, he underwent an MRI, which revealed signs of MND. The diagnosis is often linked to ALS, as about ninety percent of cases are of that form.<\/p>\n
There is currently no cure for MND, and over time the disease weakens muscles, making walking, speaking, eating, drinking, and breathing more difficult.<\/p>\n
\u00abI\u2019m not sad for myself, but for others\u00bb, Moody said, his voice catching. \u00abIt\u2019s sad because I\u2019ll have to tell my mum, tell the kids. It was quite painful.\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u2013 Lewis Moody<\/p>\n
Moody has two children: Dylan, 17, and Ethan, 15.<\/p>\n
\u00abWe were sitting on the sofa in tears, Ethan and Dylan were embracing one another, and then the dog sprang up and started licking the tears from our faces, which was quite cute\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u2013 Lewis Moody<\/p>\n
\u00abThe only good news for me is that it\u2019s me, not Annie or the kids. I know I can cope with this, and they can cope with it.\u00bb<\/p>\n
Moody\u2019s Career and Impact<\/p>\n
On the field Lewis earned a reputation as the \u201cMad Dog\u201d \u2013 a nickname that reflects his determination in defense.<\/p>\n
His career is marked by significant trophies: seven Premiership titles with the Leicester Tigers, 71 caps for England, and three appearances for the British & Irish Lions \u2013 a team drawn from the best rugby players in Great Britain and Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u00abThis has come as a fairly big shock to all of us\u00bb, Moody said. \u00abAll I have is that this is huge information to take in and deal with, and we are really emotionally shaken by it\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u2013 Lewis Moody<\/p>\n
\u00abBut this is so strange, because I feel like I\u2019m all right. I don\u2019t feel sick.\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00abBut it\u2019s so strange, because I feel like I\u2019m all right. I don\u2019t feel sick.\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u2013 Lewis Moody<\/p>\n
In addition to him, other rugby players have also suffered from this disease, notably Doddie Weir and Rob Burrow, whose active campaigning for the team and fundraising for research drew attention to the issue and increased funding for scientific developments.<\/p>\n
\u00abNaively or not, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s right or wrong here, because we\u2019ve never been in such a situation; there\u2019s a tendency to avoid the future\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u2013 Lewis Moody<\/p>\n
\u00abNot that I don\u2019t understand where this is heading. We understand it. But right now there is an absolute reluctance to look the future in the face, while everything is going well\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u2013 Lewis Moody<\/p>\n
\u00abThe fact that I can\u2019t reach out to people who are suffering from this makes me feel selfish for not being able to accept it and look to the future. But the time will come when I can do that and process it, and I want to do that as well\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u2013 Lewis Moody<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England national rugby union captain and the 2003 World Cup champion Lewis Moody has revealed that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[9938,64,63,122001,121960,122002,122000,100758,122003,74216,44,760,122004,85,122005],"class_list":["post-193140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-als","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-england-rugby-captain","tag-lewis-moody","tag-lewis-moody-diagnosis","tag-lewis-moody-motor-neuron-disease-mnd-rugby-england-rugby-captain-als-lewis-moody-diagnosis-rugby-news-2025-mnd-awareness-sports-health","tag-mnd","tag-mnd-awareness","tag-motor-neuron-disease","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-news-2025","tag-sports","tag-sports-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}