One-cap England international Jay Bothroyd revealed he played his entire career while fighting a secret and debilitating health battle.
Former Cardiff and Queens Park Rangers striker Bothroyd made a solitary England appearance in 2010. However, across his entire career, the former Arsenal trainee concealed the fact he had regular seizures due to epilepsy.
During a wide-ranging interview with the Mail on Sunday, Bothroyd revealed an incident in which he blacked out while driving and crashed his car. On another occasion, he was put in a prison cell “covered in his own blood” after an episode where he banged his head against a wall.
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Bothroyd, the only known footballer ever to play for England and the Premier League while living with epilepsy, said: “I wish I'd have spoken about epilepsy earlier but I didn't because I felt that they might give me a short-term contract or pay-as-you-play.
“I never denied it, I just didn't talk about it. I had to earn a living. I wanted security for myself and my family. There's probably more footballers out there that have the same condition who won't say anything.”
As per the Mail, 630,000 people in the UK have epilepsy, while around three-quarters of children receiving a diagnosis will either outgrow it or control it with anti-seizure medication.
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Bothroyd didn’t outgrow the condition, however, and it made his life extremely difficult as a top-level athlete.
“Epilepsy affected my performance,” Bothroyd admitted. “There were loads of times I had bad games because of it when I wasn't fully focused or I had in the back of my mind a worry like, 's***, I haven't taken my tablets.
“I once had a seizure and played two days later - because I said I wanted to. They said to me, 'Do you think you're all right to play?', and I said, 'Yeah'. They didn't make me play, but they didn't say 'you shouldn't play'. I scored in that game!
“It's about results. Back then I couldn't say, 'Sorry I can't come in, I've had a seizure' because I think people would have looked at it like a sign of weakness.”
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When Bothroyd was aged 18 he had his first seizure while playing video games at a friend’s house.
“When I got told that I had epilepsy,” Bothroyd recalls, “the first thing I said was, 'Can it kill me?' The doctor said, '99 times out of 100, no.'
“Right, fine. I put it to the back of my mind and did some silly things. I didn't take medication - not like missing a day's tablets, I'm talking weeks.”
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However, the 41-year-old recalled several incidents where the condition caused serious damage to his body, including one moment as a Cardiff player while on holiday in Portugal.
“We went out and had a few beers. The next day it was really hot, but I trained well and felt fine, then was walking back to the hotel and blacked out on top of a car, having a seizure.
“It was a black car that had been out in the heat all day. My arm singed, and it was lucky my face didn't. I woke up in hospital, I didn't know what had happened.
“It was f***ing s*** for months, healing - deep, layers of skin, third-degree burns. It was bad, especially when you're changing your dressing - you can see the wound is red-raw, but you're peeling it back. I should have had a skin graft. It was so, so painful - and I continued playing! I had bandages all over my arm and leg. It's painful when you're barging someone with no skin.”
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On his career, he said: “It shows you can achieve anything even if you have epilepsy. Oh yeah… I hadn't thought of it like that.”
Featured Image Credit: GettyTopics: Football, Premier League, QPR