Ex-rugby league player Josh Jones says head injuries made him suicidal

Jones says he developed various symptoms after being regularly concussed during training and matches.

Speaking to BBC Sport from Malaysia, where he and his family now live, he said: “I noticed that if I was doing simple tasks, like making my children a bottle of water, trying to pour it and trying to steady my hand, putting a card in the card machine, putting the keys in the door, I just couldn’t stop my shaking,” he said.

“And that’s when things progressively started to get worse; headaches, brain fog, neck pain, eye pain… I’m sensitive to light and to noise, anxiety, depression.

“The scariest thing I find is being unable to regulate my emotions. That terrifies me. I cope with it by just taking myself away. It’s been at the detriment sometimes of our marriage and me being a father and to my friends… I very much isolate myself.

“I would never let my children play, and that’s a really sad thing.”

Jones’ wife Olivia told BBC Sport that the changes in her husband’s personality were “very gradual at first” but became “impossible to ignore”.

“He went from being confident, energetic, and present to being withdrawn, irritable, forgetful – and he just seemed to be constantly in pain,” she said.

“And he often complained about suffering with headaches, brain fog, and anxiety, and it became quite scary for me.”