In this episode we sit down with Professor Bill Ribbans and Sam Peters, two voices who have shaped the global conversation around concussion and athlete welfare. Bill, one of the UK’s leading orthopedic surgeons and now Chief Medical Officer at Luca, brings four decades of experience treating athletes from the English National Ballet to Premiership Rugby. Sam, former rugby correspondent for the Mail on Sunday and author of Concussed, launched one of the most influential campaigns in sports journalism, forcing concussion out of the shadows and onto the front pages.

Together they reflect on how attitudes to head injury have changed, from the days when players were applauded for “playing on” to today’s lawsuits, protocols, and research. They explore the pressures on doctors caught between welfare and performance, why culture and governance matter as much as science, and how schools and parents may ultimately decide rugby’s future. At the heart of our conversation is a simple question: how do we protect athletes while keeping the spirit of the game alive?