The heart transplant footballer who won a World Cup for England
When Martyn Jackson walked off the pitch after Ramsbottom United's 2-1 win over Cheadle Town in October 2024, it never crossed his mind that one day he could be a World Cup winner. In fact, in the days after that match, his goal was just staying alive.
Just a couple of days after the final whistle, Jackson started to feel unwell during the night. He went into hospital and was diagnosed with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart usually caused by an infection. His case became so severe that doctors had to fit his heart with a mechanical pump to keep him alive. Within weeks, he was placed on the super urgent waiting list for a transplant — the highest priority of the three tiers of patients waiting for a new heart, on which typically only about four or five people sit at any one time in the UK.
His life was saved when a donor heart became available, and on 28 November 2024 he had successful surgery at Wythenshawe Hospital in Greater Manchester.
Fast forward to September 2026, and Jackson scored for England in their 5-1 win over Spain in the final of the Transplant Football World Cup in Frankfurt — less than two years after receiving his new heart. His team-mates and opponents were, like him, all recipients of a donor organ. England beat six teams on the way to the title, scoring 36 goals, with the win coming three days before the start of Organ Donation Week.
"You don't think you're ever going to play again"
"Obviously, when you've had a transplant, you don't think you're ever going to play again. That's what I thought anyway," Jackson told BBC Sport. "I'll be forever grateful to my donor and the family for what they've given me. They've given me the gift of life and the opportunity to live my life to the fullest."
Football at the Transplant World Cup is not quite the same as the game played at the FIFA World Cup. Matches are seven-a-side and played over 20-minute halves, with contact deliberately less aggressive. As the recipient of a donor heart, Jackson has to manage his exercise workload more carefully than many team-mates — most of whom have had kidney transplants, the most common transplant in the UK — with his role involving 10-minute bursts rather than full matches.
Having spent his youth career in the academy at Manchester United before spells at Blackburn Rovers, Preston North End and Burnley, and then 13 years across the non-league pyramid, Jackson became a game-changing addition when he joined the squad in January 2026. His wife Lucy had heard about England Transplant FC on social media during his recovery.
"She was just trying to do her best for him and trying to find a way to motivate him," said England manager Daley Cross. "His wife did drop in the conversation that he used to play at Manchester United as a schoolboy. So that got our ears twitched instantly. You could tell from him being on the pitch, even though he was so fresh into his journey, that he knew the football game and he would be such an incredible asset to us."
Cross added: "You can be in a dark place, at the time of diagnosis, through your treatment or even post-transplant. So to have us exist to help and inspire people means that we are getting some incredible footballers. And that really is the power of it: showing people that when you've had organ failure, your life isn't over. There is a chance for you, and you can go and resume and live your life."
A growing challenge for transplants
Jackson's illness came two days after Ramsbottom's win over Cheadle. Bayern Munich's Alphonso Davies was diagnosed with a mild form of myocarditis in 2022 and was sidelined for nearly five months before returning to play.
Dr Paul Callan, a consultant cardiologist at Wythenshawe Hospital's Heart and Lung Centre who worked with Jackson, said the average wait on the urgent transplant list has doubled. "Initially, we used to quote an average wait of seven days on the urgent transplant list," he said. "Now it's up to 14 days. Maybe 10% of patients who are put on the list get too poorly and have to be taken off the list."
The increased waiting time reflects a 9% drop in organ donors in the UK in 2026 compared with the same period last year. There are currently 8,700 people waiting for a donor organ — an all-time high, according to NHS Blood and Transplant, which has launched an urgent response plan for Organ Donation Week, running from 21-28 September.
Jackson has yet to meet his donor's family but is considering reaching out around the two-year anniversary of his surgery. For him to recover and play in a World Cup within that time frame is "remarkable", according to Dr Callan.
"It is so important to spread that message, have that conversation about organ donation," said Cross. "Because our team only exists for that reason. I wouldn't have 16 players to manage if we didn't have organ donation. And England wouldn't have just gone and won a World Cup."