Former All Blacks prop Carl Hayman has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia at age 42.
The former All Blacks tighthead prop Carl Hayman has been diagnosed with probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy. He played his final 45 tests in the shock quarterfinal loss to France in the 2007 World Cup (CTE). Hayman is 42 years old.
“I spent several years thinking I was going crazy, at one point that’s genuinely what I thought,” he told New Zealand sports website The Bounce.
“It was the constant headaches and all these things going on that I couldn’t understand.”
Hayman said tests showed he had early-onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy – a neurodegenerative disease.
