Former England captain Lewis Moody reveals 'shock' Motor Neurone Disease diagnosis

The 47-year-old, who won the Rugby World Cup with England in 2003, shared the news on Monday morning via his social media channels.

An all-action loose forward during his playing days, Moody played 71 Test matches and was selected by the British & Irish Lions five times, including playing three Tests, each against the All Blacks, during the 2005 tour of New Zealand.

In August 1996, he became the youngest player to run out for Leicester, making his debut as a teenager, and going on to make 223 appearances, winning two Heineken (European) Cups and seven league titles.

He was awarded an MBE for services to rugby in 2004 after England's Rugby World Cup victory.

"I'm writing to share some tough news. I have recently been diagnosed with ALS, also known as Motor Neurone Disease (MND)," Moody wrote in a statement confirming his diagnosis.

"This has been incredibly hard to process and a huge shock to me and my family.

"I feel fit and well in myself and I'm focused on staying positive, living life and dealing with the changes I will experience as they come.

"I am being well supported by my family, friends and medical professionals, and I'm truly grateful to those who, in their time, helped progress research to support others, like me, living with this disease.

"Since retiring from the sport I love, and alongside my wife Annie, I've been able to dedicate much of the past 12 years to fundraising for The Lewis Moody Foundation in support of those affected by brain tumours.

"My plan is to continue with this, but to also create an opportunity to support a charity closer to my current situation. I would be so grateful for your help with this and look forward to sharing more, once I am clear on what this looks like.

"For now, please know I feel your love and support; all I ask is that I am given some space to navigate this with my wife and sons, and those closest to us - but without doubt, I will continue to embrace life and grasp opportunities in the same way I always have."

Close friends and former Leicester teammates, Geordan Murphy and Leon Lloyd, have launched a GoFundMe page to raise funds to support Moody's care, his family's needs and contribute to related causes in the fight against MND.

Moody also appeared on BBC Breakfast about his diagnosis and how he learnt about the condition.

"Recently, as close as I suppose two weeks ago, I was diagnosed with motor neuron disease and I think it's safe to say it came as a fairly sizable shock to all of us," he said.

"But I think over the last couple of months, in particular the last couple of weeks, we've had this sort of lingering in the back of our minds and this sort of news, and until we're actually told on the day in the appointment, I don't think it really sunk in.

"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 were rightly quite emotional about it, but it's so strange because I feel like nothing's wrong, I don't feel ill, I don't feel unwell."

He was asked when did he first feel that something was wrong, Moody replied: "I try and keep fit, I try and train a couple of times a week still, otherwise Annie [his wife] gets or I get grumpy and Annie gets annoyed with me, so I have to make sure I'm sort of letting out the physical frustrations and emotions.

"A couple of months ago, I noticed I was getting shoulder weakness and went and saw a physio and nothing really changed over the course of sort of six to eight weeks at which point he referred me to a brilliant shoulder specialist in Bath called Guy Evans and so I had an MRI, a neck scan, all that type of stuff and very quickly when the scans came back it became clear that it wasn't anything to do with the neck, despite all the years of throwing myself into contact on a rugby pitch and he then sent me straight to the neurologist.

"Off the back of the MRI, he actually had a phone call with me, just me and Guy, where I sensed he was preparing me for the worst, which was fairly difficult."

Moody is not the first rugby player to be diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, a progressive neurological condition that attacks the nerves controlling voluntary muscles. Most notably, South Africa's World Cup-winning scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen passed away from MND in 2017, six years after being diagnosed.

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