Startling warning to Aussie parents as gifted star becomes youngest person to develop insidious deadly disease

A rugby league player who died aged 20 after an 'inappropriate' training session with his Sydney club had already developed an insidious brain disease caused by repeated knocks.

In an alarming warning to all parents and players, Manly Sea Eagles youngster Keith Titmuss was diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic ­Encephal­opathy (CTE) by the time he died of exertional heat stroke in November 2020.

A coronial inquest found he had become agitated and suffered several seizures after taking part in a two-hour training session that was 'more likely than not inappropriate'.

Paramedics were called to check Titmuss' body temperature three times after he collapsed at training because they could not believe it had reached almost 42C.

But doctors were even more shocked to later discover the gifted young athlete had developed stage two CTE by such an early age.

The discovery makes Titmuss the youngest Australian sportsman to be diagnosed with the deadly disease so far.

The finding, by respected neuropathologist Michael Buckland, is sure to send shockwaves through the nation's major sporting codes and raise questions about whether they are doing enough to safeguard the country's emerging athletes.

Dr Buckland told The Weekend Australian that the discovering meant players were starting to develop the incurable brain disease earlier than previously suspected.

'Keith's brain is showing us that, at least in some cases, CTE actually starts during a person's playing career and starts very young,' Dr Buckland said.

'I wasn't really expecting to see CTE because of his age.

'What this finding tells us is that it doesn't matter how good your concussion management is, or if you don't even get a ­concussion, it's that large ­exposure to repeated impacts, many of which will be non-­concussive, are still doing subtle damage to the brain that ­causes CTE.'

Unlike veteran league legends such as Mario Fenech, Robbie O'Davis and Wally Lewis, Titmuss developed the disease without ever copping head knocks at the highest level.

Instead, playing the contact sport for 15 years at a junior level appears to have been enough to cause the fatal condition.

The Titmuss family told The Weekend Australian they hoped the discovery would be a wake-up call to all contact sports that more needed to be done to reduce the number of head knocks during games.

'This may lead to changing the rules of sports and, therefore, ­affect our enjoyment of sports entertainment that we love,' his parents, Lafo and Paul, told The Weekend Australian.

'However, the rules of the game should continuously evolve to prevent injury to our sportspeople.

'Death of nerve cells in the brain is a serious matter for our community to think about and talk about.

'We may need tighter safety measures and rules for all sports to protect our sportspeople's brains and enrich their quality of life after sport.

'Dr Michael Buckland's research is crucial, and his findings must be acknowledged by all sports codes that have experienced incidents involving head injuries.

'This is why we urge all sporting governing bodies to take up the responsibility of continuously reviewing their head injury rules and prevention measures for an individual sports person's quality of life.'

Dr Buckland told the newspaper Titmuss's case demonstrated that young people playing contact sport were at risk of CTE.

'He had early exposure and he had a lot of exposure and I think every parent should sit up and consider their child's long-term brain health and ask the question of the codes: are they doing enough?' Dr Buckland said.