THIS is a story about the kindness of strangers and those closer to home. “Humbling” is the word Kevin McDonald uses to describe it. Amid the slew of letters, emails and messages of support from those such as Jose Mourinho, Andy Cole and hundreds of others, some in particular have stood out.

The 32-year-old Fulham and Scotland midfielder, who announced during an interview with Sky Sports earlier this month that he requires a transplant having lived with chronic kidney disease (CKD) for the past 14 years, says he has been offered kidneys by fans of his present club, those of his previous clubs Burnley, Wolves and Sheffield United and general well-wishers from inside and outside of football. Unsurprisingly, their selfless generosity has moved him.

“We’ve had about 20 offers since the interview went out. Fans have sent genuinely sincere messages, which have said ‘If you are really struggling, I am willing to donate’. There are others who have emailed the club or the player liaison agent, and said ‘if Kev’s in trouble for a kidney transplant, we’re good to go’. For them to say they would do it, if it came to it, is just an unbelievable gesture.

“It is humbling. Using this platform now, is a chance to say thanks to all of the people who have messaged me, to say thanks for the positive feedback, for the support, for the offer of a kidney. Me and my family are very grateful for it.”

It is not the first time McDonald has felt blessed. He owes a debt of gratitude to the doctors who have looked after him at his various clubs, his kidney team, to his wife Luce, her family, his own family. His elder brother Fraser McDonald is also on that ever-growing list. Fraser is McDonald’s would-be donor and the pair are expected to undergo surgery at some point in the next six weeks.

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“We’re both in the same boat, we’re both laid back in terms of the operation, we want to get the transplant done, we want to move on, that’s where both our heads are at. We both know the situation, we understand it, we have read up on it. It was unbelievable for him to offer that. We’ve got a great relationship – at the end of the day, if we weren’t close he wouldn’t give me his kidney. There’s a good few tests that need to be done to make sure you are good to go. First things first, you’ve got to get a blood group that is quite close. If he can’t do it then it will go to the next one in line.”

McDonald has other offers from friends and family. One of those “in line” is Craig Forsyth, the Derby County defender, a lifelong pal from Carnoustie, where both grew up.

“We had the conversation about him potentially being a donor but he has got a family to think of. He’s got two kids, if anything was to happen to them growing up . . . I can understand the situation. Where’s Fozzie at in his career? He’s still in contract. When I had the conversation I said to everyone: ‘If you don’t feel comfortable, no one is being pressured into it. If you don’t fancy it, just say ‘no’.”

For both recipient and donor the recovery period is around three months. In McDonald’s case – if everything goes to plan – that’s an extended pre-season. There is comfort to be taken from other sports stars who have made full recoveries from kidney donations such as Aries Merritt, the 110m gold medallist at the 2012 Olympics, who had surgery in 2015 and returned to win a Diamond League event in 2017 and Alonzo Mourning, who won an NBA Championship with the Miami Heat in 2006, three years after a successful transplant.

This is also a story about bravery. If McDonald holds any anxiety or fear, he does not betray it.

“We don’t let it affect us,” he says defiantly. “Until this year, it was hardly mentioned. In the back of the mind, yes, it’s there but in the grand scheme of things we don’t want it to overtake our lives and in the end you might start to get a bit depressed and your mental health starts to suffer. We’re not at that point and we never will be. We’re very positive as a family. I’m very positive.”

When McDonald was first diagnosed, it was an almost incidental discovery, occurring on the day he signed for Burnley from Dundee. It was June 2008 and he was in demand as one of Scottish football’s brightest young prospects. A week before joining Burnley he had visited Celtic Park for a tour of the stadium but, when he looked at the size of Gordon Strachan’s squad, he opted to turn down his boyhood club. It was during his medical that he first became aware he had a problem. Was his world turned upside down?

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“It was the complete opposite,” he says. “It didn’t even cross my mind because I was 18, I had just moved away from home, I was starting a career in football, it was a whole new adventure. I’d get little tests every once in a while but it didn’t affect me during my whole time at Burnley, didn’t affect me my whole time at Sheffield United. Then I went to Wolves and from then on, they were on [top of] it every single week.

“In the back of my mind I was thinking ‘I need to keep on top of this’. At the same time, it was not affecting me. It was so easy to put it to the back of my mind. And that’s probably why no one ever found out because I would never have given a sign that I was struggling.”

After leaving Burnley in 2011 he became an integral part of the team at Sheffield United, just missing out on promotion to the Championship in his first season at the club and reaching the play-offs in his other two. At Wolves, he was named in the League One and PFA teams of the year after the Midlands club secured promotion to the Championship in 2014. Since joining Fulham in 2016, he has been part of two further promotion-winning sides and played in the Premier League. Throw in more than 500 senior appearances and five Scotland caps and he has had a career he can be proud of.

“People don’t know this but when I moved to Fulham, I actually went to see a kidney specialist. We were in this room together, me, the doctor, the physio from the club and the kidney specialist. The kidney specialist said: ‘I wouldn’t sign him, it’s a big risk for a club like yourselves to sign him. His kidney function is not good enough, he is going to need surgery soon’ and I said ‘Listen, I have just played 120 games for Wolves, what’s your opinion on that?’ The medical went on for about five days and in the end the club took a calculated risk.

“We won two promotions, I was up for two player of the year awards. I was close to being in the Championship team of the year. The first two seasons were hugely successful. Looking back to that kidney specialist I think ‘well, there you are’. In the end, I was so grateful for the doctors, for Tony Khan [the Fulham owner], for people to say ‘no, we’re going to take him’.”

McDonald is not seeking confirmation that he made a success of his career against the odds, though. His motives are guided by a sense of 
obligation to those who are suffering with the condition.

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“Last week when I did the interview, it was just another day for me, but it was obviously a huge shock to a lot of people who thought ‘he has to get this done in the next week’ or ‘he’s in a critical condition’ and that was the point we were trying to get across: you can be successful in football playing with the condition; don’t think that something like this can end your dreams. I’ve had messages from people who are waiting to get kidney transplants or have kidney trouble and they’ve said ‘it’s been an inspiration, knowing that you have been playing through this for so long’.”

He admits that for the past eight years he has been taking between five and 10 tablets a day but his biggest inconvenience presently is adhering to the proscriptive diet he has been given by his specialists.

If the percentages trend towards him making a full recovery – research has shown survival rates are significantly better for transplants from living donors and still better for transplants from family donors – McDonald nevertheless knows there are no guarantees he will play again. He has been coaching Fulham’s Under-18s and Under-23s two days a week while working towards his A Licence but whether he crosses the white lines every Saturday or merely prowls them, he says he is open to a challenge anywhere.

“I have huge respect for Dundee. They gave me my platform and I will always be in debt to them. I would love to go back there as a player or a coach but you never know, football takes you in all different routes. If I look back and ask ‘would I like to have played for Celtic at some point?’ Yeah. The chance has probably gone now. Maybe when I have the transplant it will change again, whether it’s coaching or playing. Football takes you to places you never expect. We’ll get the transplant done and we’ll see. I’m always happy to try new things.”