The subject of brain injuries in hockey can often be a difficult subject to discuss and certainly uncomfortable when you think about the many players who have suffered immensely after their hockey careers ended. Hockey fans are particularly sensitive about this topic due to former players like Derek Boogaard and Wade Belak being taken from us way too soon.
Fortunately, knowledge about these brain injuries continues to grow, and recently a former National Hockey League official made the decision to participate in a brain injury study in honor of one of his former opponents. Former Montreal Canadiens agent Chris “Knuckles” Nilan recently revealed he was participating in a study on chronic traumatic encephalopathy, better known simply as CTE, after a conversation with Bob Probert’s widow inspired him to do it.
“If no one participates, how will they know,” Nilan said of the disease.
Until now, medical professionals have only been able to diagnose CTE, a debilitating disease, after death, leaving very few answers for people suffering from the condition while they are alive. Nilan hopes that his participation in the study could help provide some of these answers to people suffering from this disease more quickly.
“I’m happy I did it now and happy for the right reasons and it helps other people,” Nilan said.
Nilan plans to do follow-up tests every year and will donate his brain upon his death in an effort to help those suffering from CTE get answers, answers that unfortunately his former opponent Bob Probert never got could obtain before his death. in 2010.
