Captain. Leader. Legend. You know the story of Chelsea icon John Terry and away from the pitch he continues to show his true colours.
Just when England’s Women’s Amputee side needed a hero in came the former Three Lions centre-back to help out.
Speaking with Shebahn Aherne and Katie Shanahan on talkSPORT’s Kickback YouTube show, Shelbee Clarke has revealed how Terry helped get the team out to Colombia for last year’s World Cup.
And she detailed just how good their blossoming friendship is.
Clarke explained: “He was incredible, the opportunities we’ve been given [are incredible]. We were on BBC breakfast and he [John Terry] reached out to help.
“He invited us down to Cobham and Stamford Bridge. That’s someone I looked up to my whole life as a Chelsea fan and it was so good to then speak to get to him and wind him up a little bit.
“I’m not a wind up but you know you have to do what you have to do” she joked.
“He managed to get us our kit and get us over there because we had to raise £50,000 so it was hard but over the year different opportunities came up.
“We just had to make the most of them and went over there and just had the best time together.”
And Terry even promised them a special prize should they have won the tournament.
“Me and John Terry are besties,” she added.
“I made him pinky promise me if we had won the World Cup he would have got me an open top bus so, I still stand by that and he knows this!”
It was the first ever women’s amputee World Cup, hosted by eventual champions Columbia in November.
England made it to the quarter-finals, although were defeated by the USA, who progressed to the final.
Clarke praised the support for the Colombian fans as ‘incredible’ throughout the tournament in November.
Clarke’s relationship with football stemmed from a young age, playing as soon as she could with her four brothers.
Life changed for Clarke when she received a bone cancer diagnosis at the age of 18, meaning she had to undergo a year of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
After her treatment, she studied to become a PE teacher at Bedfordshire University and played for the first team.
Not long after, her bone cancer came back and this time it required major surgery to remove the left side of her pelvis.
Complications during surgery meant that she was paralysed from the knee down in her left leg. The pelvis eventually healed after eight surgeries, but her hip popped out during a scan, causing a blood clot.
The blood clot led to an emergency amputation above the left knee and this kickstarted Clarke’s amputee football journey.
In 2023, Clarke was the only woman in the country playing at senior level, although she has since been joined by an England amputee team who have ambitions of becoming the best in the world.
