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Nieuws
- 2 hours ago
Former Premier League star calls for standardised prostate checks in the UK
Martin Macdonald
- 4 Feb 2026 10:01 CST
- 8 min read
Nieuws
Former Premier League footballer Shaka Hislop believes prostate checks should be standard and scheduled for all men in the United Kingdom.
According to Prostate Cancer UK, one in eight males will be diagnosed with the disease at some point in their life, while for black men the ratio is one in four.
Each year, 12,000 men die on average from this type of cancer.
Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests are not offered as standard in the National Health Service and are usually reserved for men over the age of 50, though specific cases can lead to tests depending on the individual.
Hislop, who made 221 Premier League appearances for West Ham, Newcastle and Portsmouth, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2024 after he requested a PSA test during his annual physical in the United States, where he now lives.
"I honestly can't believe that it is still a thing given all we know of prostate cancer and its prominence, particularly in the minority community," he told BBC 5 Live.
"So, to have that not be a regular and standardised test as offered to people regardless of whether they have any family history or not, I find alarming.
"I have no history of prostate cancer in my family yet here I am having been diagnosed and been treated for it."
As he says, Hislop's family does not have a history with prostate cancer but the subject is raw for his wife, who lost her father to the disease.
"My father‑in‑law died of prostate cancer, so I can't imagine what my wife was going through when she heard my news, knowing her emotional history with prostate cancer, having to deal with that and still be strong for me," he explained.
"For me, it was slightly different in that I understand why they say fight cancer, because that was the only emotion I felt: 'All right, this is a fight.' And that's exactly the way I saw it.
"This was me against cancer - or me and a surgical team against cancer. That was my mindset. I never felt beaten, I never felt demoralised. I never felt sorry. This was just another fight in my life.
"Much the same way I kind of approached a football game, where you focus solely on that. It's the only thing that mattered and that was my entire mindset throughout.
"I know from speaking to people who've been diagnosed with prostate cancer that the initial emotional gut punch is tough.
"But I processed it differently. I just felt that this was a fight. Here we go. Let's, you know, put the gloves on and have a go at this."
In 2023, Olympic Champion Sir Chris Hoy was told he had two to four years to live after it was discovered he had prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.
He previously urged the NHS to lower the age at which a PSA test can be requested and Hislop has used him as an example of someone who is extremely fit and leads a healthy lifestyle only to be diagnosed with the disease.
"Cancer can affect anyone," he warns.
"The earlier you catch it - whatever the cancer is - the better your chance of survival. So knowledge is key here. Knowledge around your own health is absolutely key.
"The other side to that is, if and when you do get that cancer diagnosis, that does not mean it's the end of life. That is not a life sentence.
"If you catch it early enough, and again this goes back to the education around it, around early testing, you can still live a full and very long life. That's certainly my expectation now.
"When the likes of Sir Chris Hoy, who again, keeping himself in shape, former athlete, is not caught early enough, the diagnosis can be very dire.
"So there are two sides to this: education around who can get cancer - and the short answer to that is anyone - and then just recognising that you're part of that group of anyone, and getting tested for it, because the earlier you catch it, the better your chances of living as full a life as ever before.
"So those two things I think are important to know, to understand, to recognise and to speak about."
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