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Travis Munn: Ex-Mansfield player returns after illness

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Travis Munn: Ex-Mansfield player returns after illness

Postby Son Of Sherwood » Thu Jul 11, 2019 5:56 pm

Source; BBC Sport

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48940774

Desperately ill and ravaged by "the most brutal" chemotherapy, former professional footballer Travis Munn was thinking about how he could say his final goodbyes to his wife and two young daughters...

Seven months later, the 25-year-old has resumed his playing career with East Midlands Counties League side Borrowash Victoria.

His return in a pre-season friendly on Saturday represents a monumental step in Munn's recovery from scleroderma, a life-threatening degenerative auto-immune disease.

But, while it is a dream to be back playing, his comeback is by no means the most significant sporting event in his household this summer.

His daughters, six-year-old Freya and four-year-old Bella, have taken that accolade.


"I have realised how precious life is and I took it for granted," Munn told BBC Sport. "I went to sports day and saw my little ones running around and it was the best thing in the world."

It was when Munn could barely run around that it really began to dawn on the former Mansfield Town and Boston United defender just how bad things were.

"It was just a normal training session for Mansfield," he explained. "It was cold but not really bad and my hands were just blue. I was struggling to breathe so the physio said to sit it out."

He went to hospital and had various tests but nothing came back so he just carried on with his career despite his fitness steadily "going downhill".

"I was easily one of the fittest lads at Mansfield but I was dropping fast," he said. "I felt like a 50-year-old man."

Munn, who had been on the verge of the first team at Mansfield, moved to Boston and battled through for six months under manager Jason Lee, the former Nottingham Forest striker. But he just "got worse".

They were both equally perplexed and it was not until Munn's diagnosis that the severity of his condition started to hit home, forcing him to give up football in 2016.

"I was so unfit. I was out of breath walking up the stairs," said Munn. "But even after they told me about scleroderma I didn't really take it in. At first I thought it would be like hay fever."

"It's not cancer but it just takes over your body and rips you apart," he added. "It attacked everything, my skin, organs and bones. I couldn't do the simplest of tasks and was told there was no coming back.

"I asked how long and they said it could be three months or three years.

"My kids would ask my wife 'why is daddy lying in bed all the time?'

"I knew I wasn't going to just lie there and wait to die - that's just not me."


Munn read about pioneering stem cell treatment in the USA and that eventually led to the chemotherapy and radiation treatment to destroy bone marrow, followed by transplantation of his stem cells at the end of 2018.

"It was like a computer reboot, a restart for my body," he said.

"I had six or seven days of chemotherapy for four or five hours a day and it was the worst you can have. It was absolutely brutal. I was close to death and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."

He got sepsis and was gravely ill. The low point was having to contemplate how to tell his "amazing" wife Harriet and the rest of his family that - and he struggles to say the actual words - he would probably "not be around" for much longer.


And the youthful exuberance will be in full effect when he lines up for Borrowash on Saturday, within walking distance of his home in Spondon.

"I have signed for the season," he said. "I know the manager Mark Sargeant and he has been great with me, as have my former managers Jason Lee and Paul Cox.

"I have had some offers from higher clubs but it's close to home and perfect for me.

"It's unbelievable and it's going to be very emotional. Six months ago I was ready to say goodbye - now I am playing football again.

"Football was never really on mind when I was ill, but now it feels like a dream coming true."
Last edited by Son Of Sherwood on Thu Jul 11, 2019 8:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Travis Munn: Ex-Mansfield player returns after illness

Postby Beano » Thu Jul 11, 2019 6:05 pm

Puts life into perspective, good luck Travis.
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Re: Travis Munn: Ex-Mansfield player returns after illness

Postby Jimstag » Thu Jul 11, 2019 7:54 pm

Great news, glad Travis is back!
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Re: Travis Munn: Ex-Mansfield player returns after illness

Postby Spiritater » Thu Jul 11, 2019 10:59 pm

Wow Travis, what a guy
Theirs not to reason why
Theirs but to do and die
Into the valley of Death
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Re: Travis Munn: Ex-Mansfield player returns after illness

Postby robeyre » Fri Jul 12, 2019 9:46 am

Great news and good luck for your future Travis. Once a stag always a stag
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