Sean Maguire watched the ball loop into Stevenage’s net and then, as he celebrated, he went straight to his left wrist. He kissed, and then pointed to, the small tattoo of angel wings, holding the pose so our photographer, Barbara Abbott, could capture the moment.
It was Maguire’s first goal for Carlisle United but it meant a great deal more. His joy at scoring for his new club was blended with something much more poignant.
As we talk in the quiet of Brunton Park’s boardroom, the striker rolls up his left sleeve to show the tattoo again. The tiny angel wings, accompanied by the numbers 11:11, are Maguire’s way of carrying with him the experience of August, when he and his wife Claudia suffered an ectopic pregnancy.
This occurs when a fertilised egg implants itself outside the womb, usually in a fallopian tube. It is not possible to save an ectopic pregnancy and it can be dangerous if it is not removed, via medicine or surgery.
The NHS say about one in every 90 pregnancies is ectopic in the UK – around 11,000 pregnancies a year – and it was the Maguires’ painful fate to be in that number.
United’s Irish forward is willing to talk about what they went through because others, in the same situation, may appreciate someone being open about it. The player himself says he “did not have a clue” about ectopic pregnancies, and so their experience of late summer hit hard.
“A few weeks before the Stevenage game, we found out that my wife was pregnant,” Maguire says. “One minute you’re absolutely buzzing, then we went for the scan to make sure everything’s alright, and next thing you know she’s in an emergency room getting an operation.
“It’s absolutely heartbreaking. She was really hurting at the time and absolutely devastated. I don’t think many people know about ectopic pregnancy – I didn’t.
“When we were in the scanning room and they were explaining it could be an ectopic pregnancy, I had to wait for the nurse to leave the room, and ask my wife, ‘What’s this?’ She burst into tears, because she knew what it was.
“There’s a couple of things you can go through – emergency surgery or injections or, [medicine in] tablet form to help with the ectopic pregnancy. She had to go straight away for emergency surgery.”
This happened very early into Maguire’s time at Carlisle and was the reason he missed United’s second league game of the season, at Oxford United on August 12, which Paul Simpson explained publicly at the time was for family reasons.
Maguire says the sensitive way Simpson handled one of his players going through such a tough situation spoke volumes about the manager and the man.
“I rang the manager and he was so understanding,” says Maguire. “He said, ‘Look, we know what you’re going through – put family first’.
“My wife’s a really strong woman. Her pain threshold is quite high so she didn’t know she had an ectopic pregnancy until then. She went into surgery on the Saturday morning, and she actually wanted me to go down and play the game.
“There was no way I was going to be able to play, mentally, and also physically having been in the hospital Friday night. The manager was really understanding about it. He took the ball out of my court and said to look after ourselves, which means a lot to me.
“It tells me what type of man he is. He’d only known me for the bones of two weeks, but he trusted me. It’s one of the reasons why I want to have such a great time with him here at Carlisle.”
Claudia came through the surgery and the Maguires had to deal with the emotional challenge of the situation with the only other tools available: love, and time.
“It was a really hard two weeks or so, but she got through it mentally and physically,” Maguire says. “As long as she’s ok, that’s the main thing, and she’s been fine since.
“Myself and my wife are from Ireland, and over here on our own. We’ve lived in Preston six years and we’ve friends here but no family. When stuff like this happens you usually turn straight to your parents. We didn’t have that ability at the time.
“Her mam and dad came over, which was a great help. When you see someone you love going through that it breaks your heart. You just want everything to be fine.”
Maguire returned to training the Monday after the Oxford game. “I just wanted to do the thing I loved and take my mind off it, which was huge for me,” he says. He then went to a tattooist, “to mark what had happened”.
The moment at Stevenage on September 9, he says, therefore had “a lot of meaning”. The numbers 11:11 with the wings has a number of possible interpretations, including the belief that angelic beings are close by, bringing love, protection and guidance.
“It’s like your guardian angel, and it’s a number that it feels like we always saw at the time,” Maguire says.
“It’s something I wanted to mark, any time I score. Before a game you’ve probably seen my superstitions. I kiss my wrist and stuff like that. A few other things…people would probably say I’m a bit of weirdo if I tell you the other ones. But this is something to mark it from now for the rest of my life.”
Claudia, with great courage and sincerity, posted on Instagram about her experience of the ectopic pregnancy. Her post was read and shared by a great many people, and will also help others who are unclear about the reality of such a difficult situation.
“There’s probably more people out there going through this than what you think,” Maguire adds. “That’s women and men. I didn’t have a clue about what it was. I’d never heard about this scenario.
It is also, Maguire agreed, a salutary story that, often, we do not know what is happening in the lives of the footballers who we watch, cheer, criticise and scrutinise on any given weekend. And certainly not just footballers.
“Someone might bump into you in Tesco’s, and they might not even say sorry – but you don’t know what that person’s been through that day,” Maguire says.
“You’ve got to take every day as it comes. You don’t know exactly what problem someone is going through. When things like that happen it puts things into perspective.
“For me, anyway, family comes first and then there’s football. I’m 29, and I’ve been playing football professionally since I was 17. I still go into training like it’s my last. I’ve been blessed to do the thing I love, every single day. You’re kicking a ball around for a couple of hours a day, you’re going out playing in front of thousands of people.
“It’s enjoyable, but there’s stuff that comes with it that people don’t see. But everyone’s been understanding about it, which is really pleasing. And now the only way is forward.”
For more information on ectopic pregnancies, including symptoms, treatment, advice and support, visit the NHS website HERE
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