High Court leaves rugby brain injury case in balance

High Court leaves rugby brain injury case in balanceImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, The legal action against rugby’s authorities has been going since 2020ByChris KirwanBBC Sport WalesPublished22 July 2026Updated 1 hour agoThe cases of hundreds of players in rugby’s multi-million-pound concussion legal battle remain in the balance.After two days of proceedings at the High Court, the judge stated he would reserve judgement on whether the claimants have complied with an order to provide documents surrounding the neurological testing process.Senior Master Jeremy David Cook did not give a time frame for his decision, leaving both sides waiting for the next step of an already lengthy legal battle.He will consider whether there have been breaches, whether to strike out the claims and what relief may be granted.Players from both rugby union and rugby league claim the governing bodies failed to put safeguards in place to protect them from the consequences of repeated head impacts.World Rugby, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Rugby Football League (RFL) deny breaching a duty of care to protect the players from injury.Lawyers acting for those organisations want cases involving 337 players in union and 153 in league to be struck out.Ben Youngs Investigates: How Safe Is Rugby?