# football



## Eman @ (Jun 5, 2021)

Hi all My son diagnosed with type1 diabetes 
i am very in shock and struggles. he loves football a lot , please help me how to manage it and should i gradually take him off from football club. please if any one with my child’s age please contact me and help me . 
is it ok to put my contact number here 
i am really struggling to manage it.
god help us


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## MrDaibetes (Jun 5, 2021)

Hey & welcome to the forum. Please don't post your contact details, instead, people can private message you on the forum.

Regarding football club, I would not take him away from what he enjoys. Monitoring his glucose levels during and after exercise will help and you can make adjustments from spotting trends.

If you are worried your diabetes team can help and there is wonderful information for diabetes and exercise online also you can get in contact with the diabetes football community, they are on social media platforms and have their own website.


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## helli (Jun 5, 2021)

There is absolutely no reason to stop any sport or exercise due to diabetes.
if Henry Slade can play rugby for England, why would you stop a boy playing football?
In fact diabetes is no reason to stop doing anything. Este Haim plays in a band and tours the world, Henry Slade plays rugby, there is a professional cycling team of riders all with Type 1, we have a speaker of the House of Commons with Type 1 and did have a prime minister with it.
Most of us on this forum with diabetes live a full and long life. The days of diabetes holding you back, shortening your life and stopping you doing what you want are in the past.
Please spend some time educating yourself about Type 1. You will realise, whilst it is something to respect, it is not something to be petrified of.
Perhaps ask your diabetes team if you can talk to other families with children around your son’s age.

You may also find this thread useful where some of the members have described how they “can do anything” and have : https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/board...e-i-can-do-anything-even-with-diabetes.93431/


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## pm133 (Jun 5, 2021)

Scott Allan is a professional footballer for Hibs and has had type 1 diabetes for many years so this needn't be a barrier.

He's found a way around it by working with his consultant.

I'm also pretty sure that Olympic multi-gold medallist rower Steve Redgrave is Type 1.
There's also at least one example in professional tennis but I can't remember the boy's name.


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## helli (Jun 5, 2021)

I forgot the footballer, Nacho (José Ignacio Fernández Iglesias) who plays for Real Madrid and Spain and has Type 1 diabetes.

Should I stop?


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## Ditto (Jun 5, 2021)

Hello and welcome to the forum.


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## trophywench (Jun 5, 2021)

Steve Redgrave is actually Type 2 - but certainly when diagnosed and competing used an insulin pump and quite probably a CGM.

But, anyway - your son's medical team will work with yourselves, his school, and anyone else who acts in loco parentis when you aren't physically there - to try and ensure problems are avoided rather than having to dial 999 when something goes awry - prevention is always better than cure however old we are and whatever we happen to decide to get up to!


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## pm133 (Jun 6, 2021)

helli said:


> I forgot the footballer, Nacho (José Ignacio Fernández Iglesias) who plays for Real Madrid and Spain and has Type 1 diabetes.



Imagine being Type 1 and being named after a food you can't eat without pre-bolussing for. That is hilarious.


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## JassiB (Jun 15, 2021)

MrDaibetes said:


> Hey & welcome to the forum. Please don't post your contact details, instead, people can private message you on the forum.
> 
> Regarding football club, I would not take him away from what he enjoys. Monitoring his glucose levels during and after exercise will help and you can make adjusts from spotting trends.
> 
> If you are worried your diabetes team can help and there is wonderful information for diabetes and exercise online also you can get in contact with the diabetes football community, they are on social media platforms and have their own website.


Absolutely right sir. Eman, please donot stop him from playing, with god's grace he will be fine.


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## BlueArmy (Jun 16, 2021)

trophywench said:


> Steve Redgrave is actually Type 2 - but certainly when diagnosed and competing used an insulin pump and quite probably a CGM.
> 
> But, anyway - your son's medical team will work with yourselves, his school, and anyone else who acts in loco parentis when you aren't physically there - to try and ensure problems are avoided rather than having to dial 999 when something goes awry - prevention is always better than cure however old we are and whatever we happen to decide to get up to!


That's a good snippet of info to throw back in the face of all the people who find it funny to mock the overweight and still label type 2 as a illness of the fat.


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## BlueArmy (Jun 16, 2021)

Eman @ said:


> Hi all My son diagnosed with type1 diabetes
> i am very in shock and struggles. he loves football a lot , please help me how to manage it and should i gradually take him off from football club. please if any one with my child’s age please contact me and help me .
> is it ok to put my contact number here
> i am really struggling to manage it.
> god help us


Eman, as a parent of young children as well, I feel your pain. Even when my kids get a cold it freaks me out. However, diabetes is not the life limiting illness you probably fear it is, but it does require some education and tricks and tools to manage it and unfortunatly you, and he are in it for the long haul.  I personally refuse to comment on Type 1 as I am type 2 and I think it's disrespectful to those that are as in my opinion its a different ball game, excuse the pun. However, there are lots of folks on here to help and support you and plently of stories of people how have lived fuller lives that people without the condition.  The key is don't panic - this can be managed and he doesn't need to stop doing the things he loves with some extra planning and attention to manage his condition. Hang in there buddy.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Jun 17, 2021)

Eman @ said:


> Hi all My son diagnosed with type1 diabetes
> i am very in shock and struggles. he loves football a lot , please help me how to manage it and should i gradually take him off from football club. please if any one with my child’s age please contact me and help me .
> is it ok to put my contact number here
> i am really struggling to manage it.
> god help us



Sorry to hear about your son’s diagnosis @Eman @ 

There’s no reason why your lad can’t continue to play football. Gary Mabbutt (ex England and Spurs midfielder) was playing professional football alongside T1 diabetes way back in the 1980s!

Here’s a blog post by a friend’s daughter and keen footballer who was recently diagnosed with T1.









						Sports with Type 1
					

On the day I was diagnosed, my first and main question was how soon can I play sport? For me doing sport (especially football) felt like a n...




					martha1diabetes0.blogspot.com


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## Sally71 (Jun 17, 2021)

Just make sure the person in charge of the football training knows that he is diabetic and what to do if he doesn’t feel well. Make sure your boy always has testing kit and plenty of hypo treatments with him (glucose, jelly babies, Coca Cola, whatever he has settled on as his hypo treatment of choice) and that the trainer can help him with it if necessary.  It might be a good idea to give him a snack before he starts, biscuits or a sandwich or something (it will take trial and error to find out what works best) to bump his blood sugars up.  Your medical team should be able to help you make a plan, but there is no reason at all why he can’t keep doing everything he enjoyed before.  My daughter does ballet dancing, which can be quite a workout sometimes, and has just got her first pair of pointe shoes which has made her very excited!  The teacher knows all about her diabetes and what to do in an emergency and they keep some cans of sugary drink there specially for her.


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## trophywench (Jun 17, 2021)

Does it make your daughter joyful to walk across hard floors in your house going clonk clonk clonk perchance?

(Willing to bet it won't be the first time she's actually gone on point anyway despite it being absolutely verboten so she'll deny it anyway if you ask her - but you do wonder what it must feel like on point, I wonder if,  just try it ......  telling you little girls secrets here, bad grandma)


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## SuperBee (Jun 17, 2021)

Here's a Diabetes UK article on Gary Mabbutt.









						Gary Mabbutt: “I almost had a leg amputated because of diabetes”
					

Gary Mabbuttis fondly remembered by football fans for his 16-year spell playing for Tottenham Hotspurs, where he went on to become Club Captain and played for England.But off the pitch Gary has had to face a very different challenge after a diabetes-related complication brought him close to...




					www.diabetes.org.uk
				




Although some years  older than Gary we have unfortunately mirrored each other somewhat. I had a heat bypass a few years ago and  my lower left leg amputated last year. Enough of me as I should do a proper intro.

The young me played football, rugby, hockey and also competed in athletics and cross country. All of this whilst relying on crude urine tests. By the time BG meters came out my sports participation had changed to long walks, and rather amateur cricket and tennis (and I do mean amateur!).

Your son will be fine particularly with the support available these days!


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## helli (Jun 17, 2021)

And here's a short article about Nacho

Might be nice for a 9 year old to read - especially as Nacho is still playing for Real Madrid although not for Spain in this year's Euros.


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## Sally71 (Jun 17, 2021)

Just please don’t stop him from going to football if that’s what he likes doing, he’ll only come to resent you for it, and he’ll resent his diabetes and might start to rebel against it and refuse to do any tests or injections and then you really are heading for big trouble.  Work with him to find out how he can continue to do all the things he enjoys, with the help of this forum and your medical team if needs be. It can be done!


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## Sally71 (Jun 17, 2021)

trophywench said:


> Does it make your daughter joyful to walk across hard floors in your house going clonk clonk clonk perchance?
> 
> (Willing to bet it won't be the first time she's actually gone on point anyway despite it being absolutely verboten so she'll deny it anyway if you ask her - but you do wonder what it must feel like on point, I wonder if,  just try it ......  telling you little girls secrets here, bad grandma)


She’s desperately wanted to start learning pointe, she’d almost given up dancing because of OCD and other reasons, but this has got her back into the studio and she’s loving it!  She said everyone else was complaining that their feet hurt after 20 minutes but she didn’t care and was laughing that her toes were red afterwards!  I think she just thinks it looks beautiful.  We watched the Billy Eliot live stage show on Amazon and she was a bit gutted that an 11-year-old boy can dance better than she can lol (boys don’t do pointe though)


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## SuperBee (Jun 17, 2021)

trophywench said:


> Steve Redgrave is actually Type 2 - but certainly when diagnosed and competing used an insulin pump and quite probably a CGM.
> 
> But, anyway - your son's medical team will work with yourselves, his school, and anyone else who acts in loco parentis when you aren't physically there - to try and ensure problems are avoided rather than having to dial 999 when something goes awry - prevention is always better than cure however old we are and whatever we happen to decide to get up to!



I actually believe Steve Redgrave is Type 1 or Type 1.5   but for reasons unknown he chooses to be Type 2!


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