Ben Youngs talks about what he learned about safety in rugby in the BBC Sport documentary

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has a free brain test available to any retired England player.

I would have gone if I had any symptoms after my playing career, but I never did.

Deep down, I felt like I was protected and that I was going to be okay. As a centre-half, I played in a position that involved minimal contact.

The documentary was the reason I went for the brain test, but in the end it wasn’t just about me wanting to make it the norm for other ex-players to follow.

My brother Tom, who I played with during my professional career, is a perfect example of someone who should be thinking about testing, as he played at first grade.

Lying under an MRI scanner and having my brain scanned brought nerves I hadn’t expected.

Regardless of growth and investment, there is always risk in playing contact sports.

I was so happy to call my family to tell them that my results were clear.

When you’re living your dream, you don’t tend to step back from the sport you love to think about how safe it really is.

Having done all this, rugby has surpassed my interpretation of the extent of what is happening.

The sport is truly pioneering in the way it tries to take care of players and do as much research as possible.

I have also learned from previous mistakes regarding reducing contact in training and improving the HIA protocol, which is now very difficult to cheat since the words are constantly changing.

Going forward, we need to look at things like reducing the length of the season and making further reductions in the amount of contact during training, and we will also always need to tread carefully between player responsibility and safety protocols.

I feel like rugby is in a safer place than I thought, but there is more work to do.