Claimants in those two sports — plus rugby union — say not enough was done to protect them from the risk of brain injury.

If an application for a GLO is approved, it means individual claimants’ cases are heard collectively rather than separately.

There are now 19 football claimants, with law firm Rylands saying a further 16 have been added this week. The next case management hearing in the football case is scheduled for May 1.

Claimants in the rugby league case are set to reach 180 by the end of this week, Rylands said. The GLO application in that case could be considered by the Senior Master of the High Court at the next case management hearing in the rugby union case on May 20.

Rylands believes there is sufficient common ground for all three cases to be brought together.

The claimants in the rugby union case will be up to 373 by the end of the week, according to Rylands.

The defendants in the football case are the Football Associations of England and Wales, the EFL and the International Football Association Board, which sets the laws of the sport.

In particulars of claim issued last month, barristers have claimed that the four football governing bodies were “negligent and in breach of their duty of care” owed to the ex-players, who “suffered permanent long-term neurological injuries” as a result.

The family of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning midfielder Nobby Stiles are among the claimants. Stiles died in 2020, with a postmortem finding he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a progressive brain disease associated with repeated blows to the head.

The defendants in the rugby league case are the Rugby Football League, the British Amateur Rugby League Association, and International Rugby League.

In rugby union, the defendants are the Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby Union and World Rugby.