Football and Type 1 Diabetes: The Big Match
Credit: Ian Steele 2024
FOOTBALL’S competitive nature varies, and pre-match routines and training schedules can differ drastically by the division.
Premier League clubs will train for every imaginable scenario, and fitness routines enforced from club to club ensure their players remain in peak physicality.
But when it comes to Type 1 diabetes, even football’s brightest sports scientists and strength and conditioning coaches are no match for the chronic, autoimmune disease.
Like 9,000+ others in the UK Josephine Giard lives with Type 1 diabetes. The condition, where the body’s immune system attacks and destroys insulin making cells in the pancreas, is a constant battle.
Despite her diagnosis at just eight years of age German native Josephine hasn’t let it stop her from pursuing an impressive football career and making the daunting move from FSV Gütersloh to Scottish giants Celtic in 2018.
Two years with the Hoops and Josephine was on the move again, this time joining Hamilton Academical. A heart-breaking defeat at the hands of newly promoted Montrose on the final day of the season confirmed Hamilton’s relegation back down to the Scottish Women’s Football Championship.
However, on a personal level, it was a highly successful campaign for the 28-year-old, bagging 10 goals and playing more minutes than anyone else in the squad. Proof that when managed well diabetes doesn’t have to hold you back.
For Josephine, diabetes was never going to stop her from doing what she was born to do.
“I never hesitated really. My parents were very supporting, telling me to just play and we can figure out a way to make it work.”
For the past year and a half Josephine has been using a Medtronic insulin pump designed to release insulin into the body throughout the day and night, relieving manual insulin injections.
“Because I play in the top division the NHS tried to get me the best equipment they could. So now I’ve got a Medtronic insulin pump and a censor from the same company. The censor and pump communicate with each other. For all the background insulin it does it by itself now which is quite good.”
It’s only been 18-months, but Josephine is familiar with the insulin pump.
“When I was still in Germany I went to a big camp for young adults with diabetes. They had like a sports day and the person asked me to try it and see how I felt about it. So I just played football that day with an insulin pump to try it and I didn’t think it was such a big problem.”
Hitting double figures this season suggests diabetes hasn’t slowed Josephine down, but the changes in her blood sugar do have an impact on her fitness.
“For me it’s quite different if the blood sugar is too low or too high. If it’s too low I get really shaky and quite sluggish so it takes me a lot longer to react to things, which obviously in football is not ideal. When it’s too high I feel more fatigued. But, generally during games it’s fine because I’m distracted on the task at hand.”
Josephine speaks so openly about her condition, not just to ease the weight off her own shoulders, but in the hope of educating and inspiring others on a similar journey.
“Not too long ago I had someone reach out to me for advice. It was the father of a young girl who plays for a youth team in Scotland. She was only just diagnosed and still in the phase of asking ‘why does it have to be me?’, she was struggling to move on with the diagnosis and get back to living a normal life, so I met up with her and had a chat.”
Opening up and discussing the condition has let Josephine focus on the pitch, something which Chris Bright agrees is vital on both a personal level, and for others.
Chris was also diagnosed at eight years old, but it wasn’t until he’d come to terms with the fact his dream as a professional footballer was fading that he began to speak openly about his battle with the condition.
“I never talked about what Type 1 was like in my journey because I was trying to reach the top. When I played futsal for Wales, I thought I wasn’t going to do anything better than that, and I wasn’t going to make it professionally, so I decided to share my story then.”
Having enjoyed a non-league career down south Chris finally represented Wales on the futsal stage, but he admits hiding his condition from teammates and coaches burdened his promising career.
“There’s no way in my mind I could speak about it. I think that’s part of the challenge. When I did open up about it, psychologically it made it so much easier. I was carrying such a heavy weight around, hiding it for as long as I did, it’s not easy. I did injections in toilets, finger prick tests in my kitbag, I learned how to cover it up.”
Chris is employed by JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), but in 2017 he founded The Diabetes Football Community (TDFC) off the back of his own personal experiences.
“JDRF and TDFC are totally separate entities. My full-time job is with JDRF, but with TDFC on the side there’s loads of crossovers which is really good.”
For the past few months Chris has also turned to an insulin pump, but he revealed that the equipment is still finding its feet in football.
“It’s interesting, but not a lot of people in football use insulin pumps. We’re getting used to the technology, and there’s a number of other things in it, especially the contact of football. It’s also a social thing. Some people don’t want you to think they’re more ill than they actually are. Anyone shooting for elitism doesn’t want to demonstrate any weakness.”
Josephine and Chris are both fine examples of how diabetes can be overcome, like most things in life, by opening up and discussing the situation.
