Carragher born with ‘insides outside’ and mum was offered to terminate birth
Jamie Carragher has bravely recalled how he was misdiagnosed by doctors as an unborn baby with mum Paula even offered a termination during her pregnancy.
The ex-Liverpool defender, 44, racked up more than 700 appearances for his hometown club and was part of the side that historically came back from three goals down to claim the Champions League crown against AC Milan in 2005.
A one-club hero, Carragher joined Liverpool's ranks at the age of 10 and stayed with the club, barring a year in the Everton School of Excellence, until his retirement in 2013, aged 35. And while most professionals face a battle to reach the top, Carragher's fight to the Premier League started before he was even born.
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The two-time Liverpool Player of the Year was diagnosed with spina bifida as a foetus, where a baby's spine and spinal cord don't develop properly in the womb. The condition can lead to weakness or total paralysis of the legs, making it extremely unlikely he'd make it as a professional footballer.
"My mum had two miscarriages before me and then when she fell pregnant with me the doctors and nurses didn't know what was wrong but they knew something was wrong," Carragher told Steven Bartlett, on the Diary of a CEO podcast.
"Initially they were saying we think your child has got spina bifida. In those days, I don't know if it's the same now, there was a chance you could terminate the pregnancy if the baby was whatever.
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"My mum was given that option. At that stage in her early twenties, she would be going to church every day. She still goes every Sunday now.
"The way she says it to me is, 'If our Lord wants me to have a baby who has got spina bifida or maybe something else that's what has been decided for me that's fine, I'll love that child'."
Thankfully for Carragher, his dream of representing Liverpool and England was not to be hampered by events outside of his control as doctors ruled out spina bifida as the pregnancy developed.
Instead, his condition was put down to gastroschisis, a condition where the abdominal wall does not form completely so the intestines develop outside and are open to the air when the child is born.
Carragher added: "The closer it got to me being born, it wasn't spina bifida but they still knew something wasn't right. And when I was born I basically had my insides on the outside.
"Gastroschisis it's called the condition. I've got a big scar right across my stomach. If someone has that condition today, and plenty of babies do, it's a really small scar."
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