Jay Spearing was diagnosed with adrenal insufficiency, which had already reached a dangerous point.
Jay Spearing has focused more on coaching this season. PDO
Former Liverpool midfielder by Jay Spearing Christmas took a creepy turn. Spearing, who currently coaches Liverpool’s junior team, had learned on Christmas Eve in a random blood test that his body was currently destroying itself.
Spearing had been told she was days or hours away from a condition called Addison’s disease crisis. It is a life-threatening condition in the body where the adrenal gland is unable to produce enough stress hormones, causing the condition to collapse.
– I needed hospital treatment before my body started to shut itself down, Spearing wrote on his Instagram account.
The 34-year-old football player was rushed to the hospital, where he underwent further examinations. Spearing was diagnosed with Addison’s disease, or adrenal insufficiency.
– It took a while to realize the situation, but I am grateful that it has now been diagnosed. It can be managed with hormone therapy and it’s not something I let affect or control my life.
Addison’s disease is a rare autoimmune disease, meaning that a person’s own body attacks itself. Its symptoms include weakness, loss of appetite and weight loss.
According to the BBC, there are about 500 cases a year in Britain. In Finland, it is diagnosed in about five per 100,000 people.
Thanks to hormone medication, the disease does not affect the patient’s lifetime.
– I have ignored the symptoms for over a year without any checks, Spearing admits.
He says he is grateful to his wife, who persuaded him to go for the blood test. Now the British man encourages everyone else to go to the doctor if symptoms or changes appear.
Spearing was under contract in Liverpool from 2008 to 2013. He was loaned to Leicester and Bolton, where he played for four years after signing for Liverpool.
In recent years, Spearing played in England’s third tier for Tranmere Rovers. Last summer he returned to Liverpool to coach the under-18s and at the same time was registered as an over-age player for the under-20s.