All Black prop seriously injured in cycling accident
NEWS: Carl Hayman, who played 45 tests for the All Blacks between 2001 and 2007, was rushed to hospital in a helicopter on Tuesday after being left ‘seriously injured and confused’ in a cycling accident.
The 43-year old was training when he fell off his bike and he was eventually found in a cold, wet ditch with possible hypothermia and a broken collarbone. He was flown to Whangārei Hospital.
The accident comes just a week after Hayman published his book’ Head On: An All Black’s memoir of rugby, dementia, and the hidden cost of success’.
The prop, who made his test debut against Samoa in 2001, was diagnosed with dementia in 2020.
He retired from professional rugby in 2015 and believes the thousands of head knocks he suffered during his rugby career contributed to his condition.
Hayman, together with more than 100 former rugby players, are in the process of taking legal action amid claims that sporting bodies failed to protect them from permanent injury relating to repeated concussions.
According to 1News Hayman was training for an Ironman event in Wales as well as a swim across the English Channel for the Head for Change charity.
He was set to do the charity event alongside the former Welsh rugby player Alix Popham, who has also been diagnosed with early onset dementia and probable CTE – a progressive brain disease linked to repeated knocks to the head.
The pair have supported each other throughout their dementia battles and regularly call each other for check-ins from opposite sides of the world.
