For Nottingham Forest's relegation clash against Burnley on Sunday, April 19, former midfielder, Henri Lansbury, has joined up with the club's front of shirt sponsor, Bally Bet, and The OddBalls Foundation, to help raise awareness for testicular cancer.
Testicular cancer is the most common cancer affecting men aged 15-49 in the UK, but it becomes highly treatable and curable when the signs are detected early.
The ‘Check Your Bally’s’ slogan for this campaign involves linking VAR checks in matches with ensuring male fans check themselves for testicular cancer.
Bally Bet Check Your Ballys testicular cancer awareness campaign graphic
A simple 30 second check regularly is all that is needed, with information on how to do so found on The OddBalls Foundation’s website.
In the Premier League this weekend (April 19-20), each pause in play for a VAR review will result in a £100 donation from Bally Bet to the UK’s leading charity for testicular cancer, raising crucial funds in the efforts of The OddBalls Foundation to spread their life-saving message.
Fronting this campaign is former Nottingham Forest captain Henri Lansbury, who will be present at the City Ground during Forest’s crucial Premier League tie against Burnley on Sunday, April 19.
Nottingham Forest players Williams, Yates and Wood
Lansbury's battle with testicular cancer
Lansbury, now 35, battled through testicular cancer during his time playing for Nottingham Forest, spotting that something was wrong and realising he had cancer in the summer of 2016.
Previous football players like Arjen Robben and Neil Harris revealed their troubles with testicular cancer whilst actively playing.
Lansbury’s diagnosis, on the other hand, never became public knowledge until he decided to share his experience after his retirement in 2023.
He openly admitted to only telling a select few people at the time and shed light on why he decided to remain closed off, urging for others now to do the opposite.
"I didn’t really tell anyone. Obviously, the boys knew and the club knew, but I didn’t really, it was weird. I didn’t want the sympathy vote of having something wrong with me, to say if I had a bad game or something like that. That’s why I just kept it to myself until after I finished playing."
"My message is to take your man cape off and go and get checked out."
He added, "Probably the hardest bit for me, now that I look back on it, was telling someone. I think in the football world and the world in general, a man’s persona is not to show weakness. For me now, my message is to take your man cape off and go and get checked out."
Nonetheless, Lansbury detected the cancer early enough and **Nottingham Forest**’s swift action to organise an operation to treat their midfielder’s issue was ultimately beneficial, and somewhat fortunate.
It was also an operation which his parents only found out the nature of moments before Lansbury travelled to the hospital.
"My mum and dad were here at the house and I came back in and I was like I've just got to pack a bag. I've got to go in for an operation.
"That night I had the operation, I called the doctor at Forest and then they said I could return to training as soon as the stitches were out. It wasn’t too much of a long wait."
He also opted against seeking chemotherapy treatment for the cancer, but continued to be monitored for several months to ensure his health remained stable.
The challenges from that would persist in his final season of his contract for the [Tricky Trees,](https://www.vavel.com/en/football/2025/03/03/1215621-nottingham-forest-1-1-ipswich-town-5-4-pens-tricky-trees-edge-past Ipswich to-reach-fa-cup-quarter-finals.html) as well as the start of his spell at Aston Villa.
"There was a weight off my shoulders once I had it done, but then obviously I'd have to have checkups every three months.
"I could have gone down the chemo route but I thought obviously football's all I have. At the time, I probably took the risk to not have chemo, get straight back into training, and just have the checks every three months. After a year or so, it goes to six months.
“I just kept check of everything. Diet and my bloods and my markers going forward for that first couple of years.
"After that, I was better in a mental space, but probably the worst bit for me was knowing I had my checks coming up, then having checks, and then just waiting for results."
Exactly ten years to the day since leading Nottingham Forest on the banks of the Trent to a 1-1 draw with Blackburn in the Championship, he will adopt a vastly different role walking into the City Ground, alongside The Odds Balls Foundation on Sunday.
"I've known about them for years now and they help a lot of people out. They do promote it in a great way and they get eyes on what they're doing.
"They're such an ‘out there brand’ and they're fantastic. For me to team up with them going forward is amazing. If we can help one person, we've done a fantastic job."
Reminiscing on roaming the middle of the park in his mid-20s at Forest, Lansbury felt the best times of his career took place at the club.
"When I was younger coming through with no worries, no stress, that was probably the happiest time of my life. Going there, it was fantastic for me. I think I turned from a boy to a man there.
"They stuck by me when I left Arsenal. They were the team that really wanted me to go there and I just obviously thank them for taking that gamble on me. I do think it paid off for them and me."
Initially acquired from the Gunners in 2012 by then Forest manager Sean O’Driscoll, Lansbury played under eight permanent managers during nearly five years at Nottingham Forest.
Forest’s managerial turnover rate has certainly escalated to another level this season.
"Yeah it was like ‘Football Manager’ in real life there, but it was a fantastic club. The fans always stuck by us, and told us when we weren’t doing too well. It is a proper football club."
Forest's fight for Premier League survival
Bidding to preserve their Premier League status, his former club’s hopes for survival now hinges a lot on securing three points against Burnley on Sunday, April 19.
Lansbury said, *"The Premier League, everyone knows, is probably one of the toughest in the world. But, they've got a group of lads that are capable of staying in it every year now and they want to be higher up the table.*
"You can only fight the battle that you're fighting and they need to go and win at the weekend and really start to push on. And then Europe's just a bonus really, but they've been fantastic in that competition as well."
Perhaps swayed by his affiliations to Arsenal and Forest, he confidently tipped Tottenham Hotspur to be condemned to relegation from the top flight this season.
"I can't really see Spurs winning any games."
One major part of Forest’s advantage in the race for survival he talked about was the supporters, especially buoyed by their side securing their first European semi-final in more than 40 years.
"They've been there before so they'll know what to expect, and they'll need the fans really to get behind them this weekend (April 19-20).
"I'm looking forward to going back because the atmosphere will be amazing, if the fans are right up for it as well. And it's like a 12th player, so having them rocking in that stadium, they've got a great chance."
Before brief spells at Bristol City and Luton Town to finish his career, he spent four years at Aston Villa, who Forest will now meet in the final four of their historic Europa League campaign.
This was a less fruitful period compared to his time in the East Midlands.
"I could have stayed [at Forest], but I felt like I was going a bit stale. In hindsight, maybe I would have done better if I had stayed, but when Villa came, it was almost like another step on the ladder in football terms.
"It’s probably one that didn’t go too well. I started a little run, got injured, came back, got injured. It was just niggles and I couldn’t really get going, which for me is disappointing because it’s such a fantastic club."
Life after football
Following his retirement at the age of 32, Lansbury wisely addressed the challenge of feeling left unsure of ideas to take his life forwards professionally.
He has chosen to fill his time and redirect his drive into separate ventures, including setting up and scaling his organic fertilizer business, Green Grass.
Albeit, he said, "I’m kind of taking a step back now. I’ve got a new managing director in, he’s doing a great job. So, I'm just more on the phone, more on the social side of it, and just getting more awareness for it."
He has also dipped his toe in the six-a-side indoor football competition Baller League, which has taken to the screens of Sky Sports.
For this season, he has accompanied Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge in the coaching team off the pitch for their side Deportrio, saying, "for me, being off the pitch is probably better than on it."
Even if there is a hint of temptation to roll back the years and frustration not to step across the white line again, Lansbury will play an influential role in driving the promotion of testicular cancer and its leading charity through the weekend’s campaign.
The iconic and impactful anthem of Mull of Kintyre will ring around Nottingham to spur the players on in their pursuit of rescuing a volatile season.
On his visit on Sunday, April 19, he will be among those fans singing rather than stood on the pitch, and with another objective in mind.
"When I was there the first few times, you’re like wow and then you know the words. You start to join in under your breath, so it is an amazing feeling.
"Everyone's up singing. It still gives me shivers now thinking about it, but it's some ground. The atmosphere is phenomenal and I'm really happy that Bally Bett have invited me back with Oddballs to go and do this."
Lansbury is a key figure for testicular cancer, transmitting the message for men to check themselves, while the cultural lessons attached to this speaks volumes about the strides men’s health is making and the norms it seeks to shift.
An untold story, now attempting to become a widely heard story. Perhaps, the most important story Lansbury will continue to tell for the rest of his life.
To just help one person to detect testicular cancer early is simply life-changing, whether they are singing the iconic song at the City Ground before the game or encountering the campaign elsewhere.
Football fans deserve to understand why this matters. Males as a whole deserve to be prioritising and seeking support for their health.
Lansbury’s latest effort, teaming up with The OddBalls Foundation and Bally Bet in their campaign at Nottingham Forest on Sunday, April 19, is one that continues to lead this ongoing mission.
Awareness evolving into action.