Former England rugby captain Lewis Moody says he’s been diagnosed with motor neuron disease
Lewis Moody was part of England's team that won the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
By Issy Ronald, CNN
(CNN) — Former England rugby captain and World Cup winner Lewis Moody has been diagnosed with motor neuron disease, he announced on Monday.
The 47-year-old, who was part of England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup winning team, learnt of his diagnosis two weeks ago, he told the BBC while sitting alongside his wife, Annie.
He first noticed a “shoulder weakness” a couple of months ago that didn’t go away even after a course of physical therapy, he said.
After being referred to a shoulder specialist, he underwent an MRI scan that identified signs of MND, often referred to as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) since almost 90% of MND patients have this form of the disease.
There is currently no cure for MND, which eventually causes muscles to weaken, affecting a person’s ability to walk, talk, eat, drink and breathe.
“It’s never me that I feel sad for,” Moody said, his voice catching. “It’s sadness around having to tell my mum, having to tell the boys. That was pretty heartbreaking.”
Moody has two sons, Dylan, 17, and Ethan, 15.
“We sat on the couch in tears, Ethan and Dylan both wrapped up in each other, and then the dog jumped over and started licking the tears off our faces, which was rather sweet,” he said.
“The only good news for me is it’s me; it’s not Annie or the boys. I know it’s something I’ll be able to manage, and they’ll be able to cope with it.”
On the rugby pitch, Moody was known as “Mad Dog” — a nickname that epitomized his dogged fearlessness, especially as a defender.
He enjoyed success at both club and international level, winning seven Premiership titles with Leicester Tigers as well as 71 caps for England and three for the British and Irish Lions, an invitational team reserved for the best players from the British Isles.
“It came as a fairly sizeable shock to all of us,” Moody said. “In myself, I feel absolutely fine. You’re given this piece of information, you’re given this diagnosis of MND or ALS and it’s a huge piece of information to absorb and deal with and we’re rightly quite emotional about it.
“But it’s so strange because I feel like nothing is wrong. I don’t feel ill, I don’t feel unwell.”
Several other rugby players have been diagnosed with the disease, including Doddie Weir and Rob Burrow, whose relentless campaigns before they died raised much money and awareness to search for treatments.
“Naively or not, I don’t know what’s right or wrong in this situation because we’ve never been through it, there’s a reluctance, maybe an avoidance, to look into the future,” Moody said.
“It’s not that I don’t understand where it’s going. We understand that. But there is absolutely a reluctance to look the future in the face for now while things are OK.
“The fact that I haven’t been able to reach out to those people that are suffering with it, I feel selfish that I’ve not been able to accept that and look into the future. But there’ll be a time when I can and when I can process that. And I would like to as well.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
