{"id":27110,"date":"2021-01-25T19:53:42","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T20:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=27110"},"modified":"2021-01-26T05:06:34","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T05:06:34","slug":"league-legends-brain-donated-to-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=27110","title":{"rendered":"League legend's brain donated to science"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of the late English superstar Dave Bolton, who died last week, has donated his brain to science.<\/p>\n

Bolton, aged 83, lived much of his life in Sydney and passed away after a long battle with dementia.<\/p>\n

A brilliant ball-playing halfback who led Balmain to its stunning 1969 grand final win over Souths, Bolton was concussed many times in his career in league's bad old days.<\/p>\n

Those blows almost certainly contributed to his illness and scientists will now examine his brain for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disorder associated with repeated head knocks.<\/p>\n

CTE has become a major issue in both America's NFL and the NRL, with past and present players concerned about the long-term effects of head knocks.<\/p>\n

Players in America have won millions of dollars in lawsuits against the NFL and there are signs former NRL players will also begin a class action lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The illness can only be detected after a person dies and the gesture of Bolton's family will hopefully be a great boost to greater understanding and treatment of the condition.<\/p>\n

Two recent stars – Parramatta legend Peter Sterling<\/a> and former Dragon and Bulldog James Graham<\/a> – have also pledged to donate their brains to science after they die.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

DUI INCIDENTS SWEPT UNDER RUG – FOR NOW<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Here's an early tip: one leading out-of-Sydney club will be without two of its best forwards for round one.<\/p>\n

The two stars were caught drink-driving in separate incidents and the club has managed to sweep the story under the rug – for the moment.<\/p>\n

But it will all come out when the pair appear in court in coming weeks.<\/p>\n

The Integrity Unit will then swoop, and is likely to rub the pair out for a few early rounds in a major blow to the club concerned.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more details.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

RAIDER MUST SPEAK UP FOR TEST CAPTAINCY<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Canberra halfback George Williams is in line for a rare honour this year: the England captaincy.<\/p>\n

But Williams needs to lift one area of his game to get the gig – he needs to talk more on the field.<\/p>\n

England boss Shaun Wane coached the crafty halfback at Wigan and is a big fan of Williams.<\/p>\n

But he also knows his weaknesses and told English journos: "If George was more vocal he'd already be a leading candidate to be captain. He is a very, very smart player, but he is very, very quiet."<\/p>\n

\"Gerard<\/p>\n

FORMER TEST STAR IN STORM SYSTEM<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Storm could have found themselves a handy back-up player for 2021 in former Kiwi Test utility back Gerard Beale.<\/p>\n

Beale retired at the end of last season after nearly 200 games for the Broncos, Dragons, Sharks and Warriors.<\/p>\n

But the 30-year-old got itchy feet over the summer and has signed up with Easts Tigers in Brisbane – who happen to be the Storm's feeder club.<\/p>\n

No coach gets more out of 'run of the mill players' than Craig Bellamy and he may well call on Beale – especially during the demanding State of Origin period.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The family of the late English superstar Dave Bolton, who died last week, has donated his brain to science. Bolton, aged 83, lived much of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27110"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27112,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27110\/revisions\/27112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}