Darren Gough
former Yorkshire and England cricketer
Cricket legend Darren Gough was diagnosed with asthma in his late teens, but proved that with the right asthma management, you can play sport at the highest level.
England and Yorkshire cricketing legend Darren Gough first noticed his symptoms as a sports-mad youngster. “As a kid, I played a very high standard of football for Barnsley,” he says. “During training, I really struggled on long-distance runs, particularly in winter. When I look back, I was almost gasping for air at the finish. My breathing was that shallow and tight.”
Getting diagnosed
Even so, his condition remained undiagnosed in his early and mid-teens. “I just lived with it without knowing what it actually was,” he says. “I thought: ‘I must be unfit.’ But I wasn’t! Now I realise what the problem was.”
It was only when Darren became a professional cricketer in his late teens that he took action. He credits his best friend, Paul Grayson, who also went on to play first-class cricket for Yorkshire and England. “Paul is asthmatic and told me that I probably was too. I saw how he handled asthma attacks, and that’s what encouraged me (to get diagnosed).”
You can have asthma and still be a professional athlete at the highest level.
Managing symptoms on and off the pitch
After diagnosis, Darren — whose triggers are cold winter weather plus pollen in April and May — began managing his symptoms with an inhaler. He’s pleased to say the condition didn’t impact his career. “I told my physio about my asthma. And I had a signal. When I was bowling and had that shortness of breath feeling, I’d (put my hand in the air). They’d bring the inhaler out and, amazingly, two or three puffs later, I was fine.”
When playing cricket for England, Darren’s symptoms subsided. “I don’t know whether that’s because I was abroad almost every winter in the sunshine in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Zimbabwe. When I think back, the only countries where I was affected — although not badly — were India and Pakistan because of smog. But when I was in England playing county cricket towards the end of my career, I began noticing symptoms again.”
These days, Darren always has his inhaler with him. And it helps that his wife is a breath work teacher. “She’s helped me retrain the way I breathe. I need my inhaler occasionally, but my asthma is mild and nothing like it used to be.”
His advice to anyone who is concerned they might have asthma is: don’t be embarrassed or see it as a weakness. Get a diagnosis. “You can manage any situation,” he says. “You can have asthma and still be a professional athlete at the highest level.”
