21 Facts About Carl Ikeme

Carl Onora Ikeme was born on 8 June 1986 and is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Carl Ikeme spent his entire career at Wolverhampton Wanderers, making 207 appearances across all competitions.

Carl Ikeme was part of their teams that won the Championship in 2009 and League One in 2014, and made one Premier League appearance in 2012.

Carl Ikeme moved on a month-long loan to Conference Premier side Accrington Stanley on 14 October 2004, to fill the gap in their team caused by Jon Kennedy's broken leg.

Carl Ikeme had a further loan move to Stockport County in late 2005 which was cut short due to a hand injury.

Carl Ikeme enjoyed his longest run of games in a Wolves shirt until injury ruled him out for the remainder of the season, during which the club went on to claim the Championship title and reach the Premier League.

Carl Ikeme recovered from this setback and was again sent out on loan to a Championship club, this time Queens Park Rangers during January 2010, where he made 17 appearances.

Carl Ikeme completed a one-month loan move to Championship side Middlesbrough in August 2011, after impressing in a pre-season trial.

Carl Ikeme kept six clean sheets in ten games before a hand injury saw him return to Molineux.

Carl Ikeme returned to them in March 2012, joining on an initial one-month loan deal, later extended to run until the end of the season.

Carl Ikeme was substituted at half time, and it was later confirmed that he had broken his hand during the interval by punching a tactics board in the dressing room in frustration at the incident.

Carl Ikeme returned to Wolves' goal now as the established first choice, following the sale of Hennessey, and was a part of the team that won the League One title with a record points tally.

On 6 July 2017, Wolverhampton Wanderers announced that Carl Ikeme had been diagnosed with acute leukaemia after returning abnormal blood tests during a routine pre-season check-up.

Wolves won the Championship title and returned to the Premier League, but Carl Ikeme took no part due to his treatment.

Carl Ikeme told the public on 23 June 2018 that he was in "complete remission" after "a tough year and intense chemotherapy".

The team's new goalkeeper Rui Patricio left the number 1 jersey vacant in Carl Ikeme's honour, choosing the 11 instead.

Carl Ikeme was born in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, and was eligible to represent England or Nigeria at international level, choosing the latter.

Carl Ikeme was first called up to the "Super Eagles" squad in March 2007 by new manager Berti Vogts, who named a 37-man provisional squad for a 2008 Africa Cup of Nations qualification match against Uganda that introduced other foreign-born players such as Gabriel Agbonlahor, Victor Anichebe and Toto Tamuz.

Carl Ikeme made his international debut for Nigeria on 5 September 2015 against Tanzania in a 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualification game.

Carl Ikeme made three appearances early on in Nigeria's successful qualification campaign for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but could not go to the final tournament due to his cancer treatment, which manager Gernot Rohr called his greatest regret.

Carl Ikeme is a practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and has reached the rank of blue belt, along with winning the British Open and earning a bronze medal at the IBJJF European Championship.