![\"Leigh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_JS389866342.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLeigh Davies was a hugely gifted Wales rugby international who found himself struggling after retiring. He would soon discover what was wrong<\/p>\n
Leigh Davies has been diagnosed with dementia(Image: Rob Browne)<\/p>\n
Leigh Davies moves across the cafe area at David Lloyd Swansea<\/a>, changing gear effortlessly to go beyond a man who has strayed into his path. For a micro-second, the mind flicks back 30 years to a 19-year-old in the black of Neath surging past opponents with a compelling blend of power and pace.<\/p>\n A coffee drinker looks up on clocking the former Wales international and so does a laptop user. Maybe they have both recognised Davies, maybe not. He looks well. Probably, they don\u2019t know the full story.<\/p>\n For Davies has a serious brain injury, early onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). He is on a list of former players engaged in a lawsuit against rugby\u2019s governing bodies, claiming those same authorities failed to take reasonable action to protect them from brain injuries.<\/p>\n Davies had been experiencing problems over a long period prior to receiving his diagnosis. \u201cI went up to London for a scan and they tested my neurons and pathways,\u201d he says. \u201cThey told me that of the group they were looking at, I had one of the highest rates of neuron damage. Half of what they were testing was in a state.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d been having problems for a long time \u2013 memory loss and a sort of vertigo feeling in my brain. Then I started having blackouts.<\/p>\n \u201cI might run through my working week, arrange to meet someone at the weekend but just crash for up to 18 to 20 hours, missing all my meetings or appointments or anything else I\u2019d planned. If someone asked where I\u2019d been I\u2019d say: \u2018Sleeping.\u2019 It wasn\u2019t normal behaviour, but it\u2019s how it was. I\u2019d wake up having missed whole days or whole nights. It went on for a number of years.\u201d<\/p>\n Leigh Davies has faced some difficult times(Image: )<\/p>\n Davies won 21 Wales caps between 1996 and 2003. When he burst on the scene, playing for Neath against South Africa as a powerfully built 18-year-old, he was viewed as one of Welsh rugby\u2019s finest prospects, an X-factor centre with fast hands, watertight defence and the ability to beat opponents.<\/p>\n But the game was turning professional, with players starting to train full-time and bulk up. Amateur-era stickmen were beginning to dwindle in number and a contact sport was becoming collision-based. Players became larger, fitter and stronger and the hits became more substantial. It wasn\u2019t altogether certain that everyone appreciated how things were changing.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t even know a concussion was brain damage,\u201d laughs Davies.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a young boy who just wanted to play rugby and like most other kids my age I thought it would be OK.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just got on with it in those days.<\/p>\n \u201cI can remember my first game playing for Neath, against Treorchy, and one of their players clothes-lined me. That would be a concussion.<\/p>\n \u201cPlaying against England when I was 19, I had my broken nose in the first 10 to 15 minutes. In the last minute of the game, I was ripped down by the neck by Phil de Glanville.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd there were violent blows to my head in a game against Perpignan later in my career.<\/p>\n \u201cThen there were all the other bumps. I didn\u2019t have a clue whether any of them might cause lasting damage. I can\u2019t remember once putting my hand up to say I wanted to come off. I didn\u2019t know any different. The culture was to stay on the pitch, so I did stay on. It was a man thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Davies playing for Neath in 1996(Image: \u00a9 Huw Evans Picture Agency)<\/p>\n Davies has been through the most testing times and continues to be on that road, but his attitude to life is something to behold. This writer has known him since those early days with Neath. Positivity was at the heart of his personality then and it continues to be today, helping him deal with this most daunting of challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cI have always been the type of person whose first thought whenever I fell ill or got injured was \u2018what can I do to rehabilitate myself?\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cI know a brain problem is completely different and I know it\u2019s something that might not be able to be fixed totally, but my mentality was to do what I could while working with the doctors.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have been really good.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen this started I\u2019d have ringing in my ears and my sleep patterns were all over the place. If I walked in the day, the light and the cars really affected me. I couldn\u2019t jog, nor could I catch a ball. I was going up the field with my boy, trying to kick the ball, but my coordination was shot.<\/p>\n \u2018\u2019Everyone has superpowers and mine were physical, but they were leaving me and it was hard to take. I was probably at my lowest around that time.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just want to do anything that might help you. I tried walking in the night, for hours at a time. I could manage that better than in the day. I also went swimming and I had regular saunas.<\/p>\n \u201cI am doing everything the doctors tell me I should be doing.<\/p>\n \u201cI am carrying on with the walking, the breathing exercises, the hydrotherapy and stuff, and I have noticed tiny steps forward.<\/p>\n \u201cI won the odd game of table tennis against my son, for starters. He was 15 or 16 and there was a time when I could beat him at most sports, but all of a sudden he was hammering me. But I have stuck at it and the other day I won a game or two again. Once I saw that bit of progress, I thought: \u2018Let\u2019s move on to the next step.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d also lost the ability to juggle, so I thought I\u2019d try to teach myself how to do that again. I was dropping balls everywhere at first. But I challenged myself to do it properly and after a year I could do it again. I\u2019ve had to work at it and it\u2019s not easy, but doing stuff like that, and playing reaction games like pickleball, is supposed to help.<\/p>\n \u201cMy coordination has come back a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Leigh Davies in action for Wales in 1999(Image: )<\/p>\n Making new memories is the big issue. \u201cIf you gave me 10 things to do now, by the time I got out of the door, I wouldn\u2019t be remembering any of them,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there\u2019s not a massive decline at this point, which is something to hold onto.\u201d<\/p>\n Davies continues: \u201cI try to be positive. I\u2019ve had a scan and it\u2019s identified what is wrong with me. No money or compensation can go beyond that, because I\u2019ve been able to change my life and prioritise my health.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve stepped back from everything.<\/p>\n \u201cI was coaching but my stress levels were too high. Rather than be able to switch off as I could back in the day, everything stayed with me \u2013 the noise in my head; adrenalin just washing around. My boy Joseph, my mother and my stepdad \u2013 we all sat down and they said: \u2018We think it\u2019s best if you don\u2019t do that, just concentrate on you and your health.\u2019 I can\u2019t stress how brilliant they\u2019ve been. All my family got behind me, giving me the support I needed. It was like everyone\u2019s in it together.\u201d<\/p>\n Complaining is not Davies\u2019s style but his world has been impacted hugely by his condition and what brought it about. I ask him how he feels about rugby and whether enough was done to keep players like him safe in those uncharted early years of professionalism. \u201cI\u2019m no doctor but a lot of players from that era have developed problems since finishing,\u201d he says. \u201cThe courts will decide if enough was done to protect people.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019m not thinking about that at this point. I just want to do what I can to look after myself, and I do think there\u2019s hope. It\u2019s about looking after yourself and hoping there will be medical advancements.<\/p>\n \u201cI was thinking about Lewis Moody the other day and his motor neurone disease diagnosis. I don\u2019t know what brings that condition on, but it\u2019s hard to imagine what he and his family are going through. It kind of puts my problems in perspective. If I can support him in any way, I will.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the ongoing challenges, Davies still has recall of certain events in his career. The first big one was the infamous Neath v South Africa game in 1994, a match so violent it possibly should have come with an 18 rating. \u201cWild,\u201d he sums up, \u201cbut when you\u2019re an 18-year-old coming through, you just think that\u2019s how the game is at the top level. I\u2019d gone from youth rugby, where there were always fights, to playing for Neath, where there were always fights, so you kind of thought to yourself: \u2018This is how it is.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI watched the highlights of the South Africa game on YouTube the other day and it was a hell of a match.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were some very good players in that Neath side, among them forwards like Brian Williams \u2013 an unbelievable player \u2013 Andrew Kembery, Gareth Llewellyn, Steve Williams, John Davies, Chris Wyatt and Chris Scott.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to play for the club ever since I was a schoolboy. I used to live in Fairyland and all of their team would run through the Gnoll estate and up towards the waterfalls. You\u2019d watch them go past \u2013 we\u2019d try to chase them. They always had that super-fit mentality.<\/p>\n \u201cThen when I was playing I\u2019d sometimes go down for breakfast in the town with the rugby manager Brian Thomas on match days and everyone would be there with their black jerseys on \u2013 pretty much all of Neath, really, at 12 o\u2019clock ready for the game, the place packed with people just waiting for the match. What an atmosphere. Think of that, with everyone behind it for a routine club game, to where rugby is now.\u201d<\/p>\n Davies played at a time when Scott Gibbs, Mark Taylor and Allan Bateman were all looking to figure in the Wales midfield, but which player of those he faced made the biggest impression on him? For his answer he goes beyond the significant talents of those listed above and instead homes in on a player he came across early in his career.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you play against a similar style of player to yourself, in my case perhaps a Taylor or a Gibbs, you know what\u2019s happening there,\u201d he says. \u201cBoth of those were great players, but the player who gave me a lesson was Mark Ring.<\/p>\n \u201cI played against him for Neath against Cardiff<\/a> at the Arms Park and every time he had the ball he seemed to have three or four options \u2013 inside, outside: you didn\u2019t know what he was going to do. He was playing 12 and if I came in to mark one of their players, perhaps the full-back, he\u2019d send the ball out to someone else.<\/p>\n \u201cFor him, it was about skill and deception. The way he organised to have those options was something that stuck with me. That day, he was brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n Graham Henry during his days as Wales coach (Image: )<\/p>\n Davies\u2019s Wales days petered out under Graham Henry, with the ex-Neath man winning just three of his caps after Kevin Bowring left the national scene. \u201cHenry didn\u2019t fancy me as a player,\u201d he says. \u201cI think he\u2019d heard I had a reputation for liking the social side, but I worked really hard after he took over, training flat out, going on tours and barely having a drink and it still wasn\u2019t enough. They brought in players from overseas who won caps ahead of homegrown people. Perhaps it\u2019s not always about ability. Sometimes if a coach doesn\u2019t like you, then you\u2019ve no chance.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe understandably, Davies hasn\u2019t pointed his son in the direction of rugby: \u201cHe\u2019s 18 now, a really talented sportsman \u2013 an all-rounder. I suppose I could have influenced him. I could have said: \u2018Go and play rugby. You could be an awesome player.\u2019 He was a back-three player in school<\/a> but he stayed more in football. It was up to him, but given everything that\u2019s happened to myself, I just let him find his own path.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I don\u2019t want to come across as someone who\u2019s complaining, because I\u2019m not. I\u2019m grateful for my career. I played for great clubs in Neath, Cardiff and Llanelli<\/a> and for the Scarlets<\/a> and the Ospreys<\/a>. I also played for my country and visited different places around the world and had different experiences.<\/p>\n \u201cAbove all, I\u2019m grateful for the scans and the expert help I\u2019m receiving and the support my family have given me. None of us \u2013 you, me or anyone else \u2013 knows what\u2019s ahead in our lives. You just have to try to be positive.\u201d<\/p>\n Rugby players with the natural talent of Leigh Davies don\u2019t come along often.<\/p>\n Men with his outlook are even rarer still.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Davies was a hugely gifted Wales rugby international who found himself struggling after retiring. He would soon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55,9015],"class_list":["post-375325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Leigh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_JS389866335.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Davies](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_JS206370831.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Leigh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_GettyImages-1240112.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2_Graham-Henry-111.jpg\")
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