Jay Bothroyd: Ex-England international says epilepsy has never held back career

Jay Bothroyd has been playing in Japan for the last six years

Former England international Jay Bothroyd says having epilepsy has never held him back in his football career, as the striker spoke about living with the condition.

The ex-Wolves and Cardiff City player, 38, has had epilepsy, which affects the brain and causes seizures, since his late teens.

Bothroyd says he is keen to help raise awareness about the condition.

"I don't want people to look at it like an illness," he told BBC Sport.

"I am trying to help raise awareness because I am sure there are a lot of sports people out there who don't want to talk about it.

"I want to help people."

• Bothroyd on playing in Japan, his one cap and epilepsy

'You can achieve all you want to achieve'

Bothroyd was speaking on Purple Day, an international grassroots effort dedicated to increasing awareness about epilepsy across the world.

He has been playing football in Japan since 2015 and currently plays for Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo.

Prior to that he spent over a decade in English football, playing in the Premier League with Coventry, Blackburn, Charlton and QPR and earned an England cap in 2010.

"It hasn't affected my football," Bothroyd said.

"I have only had one seizure [in a football environment] and that was on the training pitch about three years ago here in Japan."

He added: "They didn't know I had epilepsy until I had that seizure but then loads of people started to write to me saying they didn't let their kid do sports because they had epilepsy, but seeing me do it and have a career and achieve all of my dreams gave them the belief they could do it now.

"Because of that there are loads of kids that have gone back to sport, because they can now.

"You can achieve all your dreams. You still have to be responsible as someone with epilepsy but you can still achieve all you want to achieve."