George Barmby, son of Nick Barmby, a footballer who played in the Premier League, is now working in medical theatres, after his football career ended earlier than he’d expected.  

George signed with Scunthorpe United and played for them for around two years. His career was short lived though because he obtained an injury on his fifth metatarsal and was required to have an operation. After the initial surgery didn’t go as well as they’d planned, he had a revision surgery, and his injury wasn’t able to be rectified. Due to this, he was released from the club with little to no options for a career. Whilst he was having his surgery, he had what is known as a ‘spinal’, where he was numbed from the waist down but still fully conscious. He was able to watch the surgeon work and see what they were doing. He said, “There was something about operating theatres as a patient that just seemed to fascinate me”. 

During the years he was doing his GCSEs at school, he was offered a football contract, and as he was sure he would make it to a professional level as a footballer, he didn’t try as hard as he could have done, leaving him few qualifications that could help him get a job easily. He said, “I had a contract and I kind of put school to the back of my priorities”. Fortunately, he managed to get a job in operating theatres and he’s now working in them full time.