Nine seconds of silence.
After Ben Youngs asks whether or not Lewis Moody ever noticed a danger to taking part in rugby, his former team-mate takes his time earlier than starting his reply.
There is rather a lot to contemplate.
Moody performed alongside Youngs at the highest stage. He received 71 caps for England. He toured with the British and Irish Lions. He received home and European titles as a part of a notoriously hard-edged Leicester group.
Through it all, Moody was famed for his full-throttle dedication. His disregard for ache and his infinite urge for food for collisions and close-quarters fight earned him the nickname ‘Mad Dog’.
In his taking part in days, the solely danger Moody appeared to be involved with was that some ounce of effort could be left unspent in pursuit of victory.
Looking again, the 47-year-old says it wasn’t that easy.
“I do think I was very aware of the risks rugby presented, when you go and smash yourself into another human being week in week out, day in day out,” Moody tells a brand new BBC documentary – Ben Youngs Investigates: How Safe Is Rugby?
“I think I was acutely aware of the risks that come with injury and concussion, but I was happy that the reward and the joy of playing the sport far outweighed any of those.
“I loved what I did a lot that I used to be ready to place up with that, and I’d do once more. I cherished it… I completely cherished it.”
Last 12 months, Moody was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) – a degenerative muscle-wasting situation.
Several rugby players have had the same news.
Rugby league legend Rob Burrow died in June 2024. Scotland international Doddie Weir and former Springbok Joost van der Westhuizen also died with the condition.
Ed Slater, whose profession at Leicester overlapped with Moody’s by a season, retired from playing in July 2022 after tests showed he too had MND.
There is no proven link between rugby of either code and MND, though elite athletes in general are disproportionally affected by the condition.
It is assumed low ranges of oxygen in the physique throughout intense train damage motor neurone cells, triggering the illness in those that are prone both although genetics or environmental factors.
Despite that, Moody recognises rugby has become linked with MND in much of the public’s mind.
“I do not get annoyed by it,” he says.
“It is a straightforward assumption to make, as a result of you may have had a few high-profile rugby gamers with MND, that taking part in rugby makes you extra more likely to get MND. But that isn’t the reality.
“The only link and connection to MND and sport is around extreme exertion. There are research papers out there that talk about the connections. If you speak to the scientists or clinicians in this space, there are multiple reasons MND occurs. It’s not one thing.”
