from Aaron Taube of Business Insider.

Five years into his retirement, the nine-time NHL All-Star says that the brain damage inflicted by his hard-hitting career makes it so he can no longer remember many parts of his past — games he played in, trips he went on, and friends he spent time with.

"My wife will ask me 'Hey, remember we did this? Remember we did that?' And I totally don't remember any of it," Roenick says. "My short-term memory is good, but there's a lot of times I'm asked questions that I couldn't remember for the life of me."

Now an analyst with NBC Sports, Roenick says the concussions also hinder his speech. Sometimes on television he will have trouble finding the right word, even if it's one he knows and uses frequently.

He's worried that his brain will continue to deteriorate as he gets older, and he fears that he could one day suffer from dementia.

"It's extremely frustrating, and I get mad because public speaking is part of my job," he says. "There are a lot of things that I know, but I can’t go in my brain and retrieve the word that I’m looking for and throw it out of my mouth."

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