Ex-Liverpool star Stephen Darby, 35, speaks from his wheelchair with a slow and slurred voice after Motor Neurone Disease ended his career at just 29, as he bravely leads the fight to find a cure

Former Premier League footballers Stephen Darby and Marcus Stewart have bravely opened up on their battles with motor neurone disease (MND). 

The pair were seen at Anfield conversing during a special feature for BBC Breakfast  and spoke on how the disease has affected them and their families. 

Stewart was seen pictured pushing Darby in a wheelchair, with the pair spending time visiting the Liverpool team’s changing room, before the pair were seen going down the tunnel towards the pitch. 

Darby, 35, enjoyed spells with Bolton, Liverpool, Notts County and Bradford during his career, retired from football in 2018 after being diagnosed with the illness at the age of 29. 

It came just three months after he had married former England Lioness captain Steph Houghton.  

He would begin his career progressing through the Liverpool youth ranks before going out on loan to Swindon Town and Notts County. 

The pair sat inside the stadium to discuss the illness, with Darby saying: ‘MND brings all types of people together. 

‘But what is special, is that we are all fighting for the same thing and that’s to find a treatment and a cure.’

Speaking on the impact that living with the illness has on his family, Darby said: ‘It’s harder for emotionally for them to see them fall. [It’s] not nice.’

Stewart lauded him for opening up, saying: ‘See for me what you’ve just said I won’t even be able to speak about that. I don’t want to. You’re braver than I am. I think that but I don’t speak about it. Because I wouldn’t have been as brave as you just were.’ 

Darby was also asked by Stewart whether his mental determination came from his footballing background, to which Darby replied: ‘Yeah defo. Do you feel the same way?’ 

Stewart replied: ‘Yeah I do. You know I think that football background of it being an elite sport, it kind of prepares you for what’s happening now – psychologically. 

‘I think we’re used to living in the moment as a player and we live day by day, week by week, you can’t look four months ahead, you can’t look a year ahead because you don’t know what’s going to go on.

‘So I think for me I can relate to it because that’s how it is now, because I live in the moment. I live week to week and don’t look at next year, next month, just every day. 

More to follow…