Ivan Toney was told ‘you’ll be lucky to walk aged 28’ – and it blocked transfer

Ivan Toney has revealed he was told "you'll be lucky to be walking aged 28" – a diagnosis which caused a transfer to fall through.

The suspended Brentford striker, who was banned until January for breaching the FA's betting rules on 232 counts but can return to training next month, was playing for hometown club Northampton Town at the time.

Then a 18-year-old, he'd been impressing in League Two and attracted interest from Championship side Wolves. He had all but joined them, but an undisclosed medical issue scuppered the move.

Recalling what happened on The Diary of a CEO podcast, Toney, 27, said: "Before I was going to Newcastle I was supposed to go to Wolves. I’ve got there, I’ve met everybody, went in the changing rooms, got my number on, took the pictures.

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"They come to the contract side, and then I think there was a bit of talk with my agent and the club, and certain things and I think it related back to us.

"It was all just confusing, my family didn’t know what was going on. And then out of nowhere the club said we’re not looking to sign you no more due to you having scoliosis in your back.

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"We was so confused, from getting a squad number, meeting all the players, meeting all the staff and then for them to come out and say it was scoliosis in your back we’re not looking to sign you, it was kinda like was that really the reason, is there more behind it?

“I’d said my goodbyes at Northampton and I’m supposed to be then signing for Wolves. Next day I’m back in Northampton training with the boys.

"Everybody's like 'what's happening?' and the manager's (Chris Wilder) just sat me down and said 'listen, don't dwell on that. I'm sure other things will come into place' and I think a few weeks later Newcastle were interested and I went there."

Toney believes Wolves were well aware of his scoliosis beforehand, as he'd not long had it checked out. He continued: "I feel like they was aware because before we set up to see a specialist because I feel like they wanted to know what was going on, how bad it was.

"I think certain scoliosis, it stops you from walking at a certain age and just gets worse and worse. We did see a specialist, he said you’d be lucky to be walking at 28 still.

"It doesn’t really register, you think at the time at 18 well I’m fine now, I’m enjoying football now. I don’t feel like it has [affected my game]."

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