England rugby star Henry Slade opens up on how Type 1 diabetes impacts his profession

As an elite rugby player who has Type 1 diabetes, Exeter Chiefs and England star Henry Slade has grown accustomed to the demands of the condition

The launch of the Nations Championship involved cross-continental travel and a level of stress on players never before seen in rugby, and for Henry Slade, the challenge was exponentially more difficult. As an elite rugby player who has Type 1 diabetes, Slade has grown accustomed to the demands of the condition, which require him to inject insulin to maintain his blood sugar levels at all times.

That is not straightforward at the best of times, but add in factors like differing time zones and an unexpected recall for England’s first Test in South Africa, and Slade had to be particularly careful about his diabetes management. Not that he is complaining.

The Exeter Chiefs centre has racked up 77 caps for his country, but had dropped down the pecking order with England, even as his club side enjoyed a bounce-back campaign, reaching the Gallagher PREM final.

Those performances, combined with George Furbank withdrawing at the last minute from England’s first Test of the summer away to the Springboks in Johannesburg with appendicitis, saw Slade catapulted back into the side and he seized his opportunity with both hands, before revealing some of the difficulties that it posed. He explained: “With my diabetes, there’s a lot of travel, and travel does affect you in different ways as well.

“Time zones, different temperatures, all sorts of things. So there were a lot of hurdles to overcome in the summer, but I dealt with them pretty well.

“Considering how the season had gone internationally for myself, actually not being selected for the whole of it, I wasn’t really expecting to have a big part to play in the summer, although I obviously wanted to.

“I also wasn’t due to start the first game, but unfortunately for George Furbank, he got appendicitis and I was brought onto the bench. Then I started the next two. So I got a lot more games than I thought I was going to get, which I was happy about.

The day before a game I tend to eat more carbohydrate than normal because you’re trying to fuel the body for a game of rugby. I only found out about 7.00 or 7.30 the night before the game that I was involved at all, so it was a bit of a shock. I had to get some food in me. I don’t like to eat too late before bed either, and I was up early the next day to try and fuel up. So, yeah, there are challenges in that way, it meant lots of carbs for breakfast.”

Slade’s performances in wins over Fiji, in Liverpool, and then away to Argentina, were a reminder of what he can offer at international level, excelling on three different continents over the course of three weekends. He will now look to maintain that level of form with Exeter, who have started the season with a couple of defeats to Gloucester and Bath, with a World Cup at the end of the campaign.

Slade missed out on selection for the World Cup in France in 2023, a shock omission at the time, so he knows that there is a long way to go to earn a place in Australia in 2027. But should he make it, Slade knows that there will be parts of the trip that he will have to be particularly focused on to ensure he is able to perform to his best.

He explained: “Aside from the obvious thing about making sure you’ve got enough insulin stocked up, I think it’s so different every day, really. I mean, it’s a 24/7 disease. It’s not something you can just turn on and off. Everything affects you in a different way.

“There would be a different climate, which would affect it. There would be a different time zone, which would affect me. As an athlete, there might be heightened or more activity than normal, more adrenaline, excitement, anticipation – those sorts of things. Everything plays into your blood sugar levels.”

Slade was speaking about living with Type 1 diabetes as part of the Tackle Diabetes campaign following a new survey led by Sanofi. It revealed significant misunderstanding and lack of knowledge around Type 1 diabetes despite the fact that cases are on the increase.

The number of people living with Type 1 is expected to increase by around 30% worldwide over the next two decades, and yet the survey showed that over 40% of adults in the UK think Type 1 diabetes is brought on by diet and lifestyle whereas in fact it is an autoimmune condition. Slade himself was diagnosed at the age of 18 before experiencing any symptoms and has been able to manage the condition while performing at the highest level of rugby.

Tackle Diabetes is a campaign led by Henry Slade in partnership with Sanofi, to raise awareness of Type 1 diabetes signs, symptoms and the value of early detection. For more information about early detection visit testfortype1.com/uk