Lewis Moody, the indomitable former England rugby captain and 2003 World Cup winner, delivered heartbreaking news on October 6, 2025: at just 47 years old, he has been diagnosed with motor neuron disease (MND), a progressive and incurable condition that attacks the nerves controlling muscles. Moody shared his diagnosis during an emotional interview with the BBC, seated beside his wife, Annie, and revealed that he first noticed a persistent weakness in his shoulder a few months earlier. Despite undergoing physical therapy, the issue lingered, prompting an MRI scan that ultimately confirmed the signs of MND—also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the form that affects nearly 90% of patients.
Moody’s revelation stunned the rugby world, not least because of his age. At 47, he is considered young for an MND diagnosis; most patients are diagnosed after they turn 50. Yet, as he told the BBC, "It’s never me that I feel sad for. It’s sadness around having to tell my mum, having to tell the boys. That was pretty heartbreaking." Moody’s two sons, Dylan, 17, and Ethan, 15, were at the forefront of his mind as he processed the news. "We sat on the couch in tears, Ethan and Dylan both wrapped up in each other, and then the dog jumped over and started licking the tears off our faces, which was rather sweet," he recounted, painting a scene of familial love amid adversity.
On the rugby pitch, Moody was a force of nature, earning the nickname "Mad Dog" for his fearless, sometimes reckless, commitment to the game. He won 71 caps for England, captained his country on 12 occasions, and was a linchpin in the historic 2003 World Cup triumph. He also enjoyed success at club level, claiming seven Premiership titles and two European Champions Cups with Leicester Tigers, and making 34 appearances for Bath before retiring in 2012. His reputation for courage was so pronounced that current Ireland coach Andy Farrell once described him as "an absolutely fearless player – one of the best that we’ve produced." Farrell added, "He will be remembered as mad. A fighter who has total disrespect for his own body, who only knows one way. I honestly don’t think I’ve played with another player who is that committed and cared so much for his teammates as well."
Moody’s career was punctuated by a litany of injuries—knee ligament tears, Achilles tendon ruptures, foot, shoulder, hip, and eye problems. He even played through a stress fracture of his leg and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2005, a fact he kept secret while still competing at the highest level. As he joked in his autobiography, Mad Dog - An Englishman: My Life in Rugby, he was "held together by medical tape" by the end of his playing days, and he credited "the cast of hundreds, maybe thousands… of physios and medics who have helped me out of my gloom and back on to the rugby pitch and the surgeons who have rebuilt me over many years."
Yet for all his toughness on the field, Moody is widely admired for his warmth and generosity off it. Former teammate Will Greenwood told BBC Radio 5 Live, "He is the most wonderful human that we love to his very core. It is just tragic news, because he is one of the great guys. And I know there is no order to this stuff – how you leave this planet – but you root for the good guys. There is not a nasty bone in his body, he is the most optimistic human you can hope to find."
MND is a devastating diagnosis. The disease gradually robs sufferers of their ability to walk, talk, eat, drink, and breathe. There is currently no cure, and while some, like the late Professor Stephen Hawking, have lived with it for years, the prognosis is often grim. Moody’s symptoms remain mild—"I have a bit of muscle wasting in the hand and the shoulder. I’m still capable of doing anything and everything. And hopefully that will continue for as long as is possible," he told LADbible. But he and his family know the road ahead is uncertain. "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’re rightly quite emotional about it. But it’s so strange because I feel like nothing is wrong. I don’t feel ill, I don’t feel unwell," Moody reflected.
Moody joins a growing list of rugby players affected by MND, including Rob Burrow, Doddie Weir, and Ed Slater. Burrow, who died at 41 in 2024, and Weir both used their diagnoses to campaign for awareness and research funding, leaving a lasting legacy in the sport. The question of why so many athletes—especially those from contact sports like rugby and football—are being diagnosed with MND remains unresolved. Research from the University of Glasgow in 2022 found that former international rugby union players were 15 times more likely to develop the disease than the general population. A 2024 study from Durham University further linked multiple concussions to biological differences that could increase MND risk.
The Motor Neurone Disease Association acknowledges a "correlation" between contact sports and MND, but emphasizes that no direct causal link has been definitively proven. "A combination of environmental and lifestyle factors likely act together with specific genes to predispose people to get MND. What we don’t know is the exact recipe of these factors that triggers onset of the disease," the charity explained, as reported by LADbible. They continue to push for more research, participating in expert working groups with other organizations to explore the potential connection between elite sport and the condition.
For Moody, the focus now is on the present. "The future is uncertain at the minute, so that’s why we’re just focused on now," he said in his BBC interview. "It’s not that I don’t understand where it’s going. We understand that. But there is absolutely a reluctance to look the future in the face for now while things are OK." He admitted feeling a sense of guilt for not yet reaching out to others living with the disease: "The fact that I haven’t been able to reach out to those people that are suffering with it, I feel selfish that I’ve not been able to accept that and look into the future. But there’ll be a time when I can and when I can process that. And I would like to as well."
Moody also announced plans for The Lewis Moody Foundation, which has supported children and adults affected by brain tumours for over a decade, to expand its mission to include those living with MND. In the face of daunting odds, Moody’s resolve and optimism remain undimmed—qualities that defined his rugby career and now shape his response to the toughest opponent he’s ever faced.
As the rugby community rallies around one of its most beloved figures, Moody’s story is a powerful reminder of both the fragility and the resilience of the human spirit.
