Jonjo Shelvey built a reputation as a combative and fearless midfielder during his career at Liverpool, Newcastle United, and with England — but one of his hardest battles had nothing to do with football. Shelvey developed alopecia at a young age, and the condition made him a recurring target for cruel chants from opposition fans.

The most common of those chants drew a comparison to Voldemort, the bald arch-villain of the Harry Potter series. For a young player still finding his feet in professional football, the abuse was difficult to absorb.

Learning to live with the chants

"It was hard, but it's something you learn to deal with," Shelvey told FourFourTwo. "I can't change it — it's part of me. It's one of those things that you live with or you crumble."

Over time, Shelvey developed the resilience to tune out the noise, even when the noise came from tens of thousands of voices at once. "It's not a nice thing to have 50,000 fans singing: 'Harry Potter, he's coming for you,'" he said. "You just have to play along with it, and it hasn't bothered me for a long time."

A routine that helped

Part of finding peace with the condition involved settling into a personal grooming routine. "When I first shaved my head, I used to do it every two days — as soon as a bit of it would come through, as it grows in patches," Shelvey explained. "But now I just do it when there's a game. I don't care what I look like during the week."

A message to younger players

Shelvey acknowledged that his experience, as painful as it was, could serve a purpose for others going through the same thing. "For young lads that suffer with it now, it's a good thing that I went through it first," he said. "I was tormented, but at least I can relay my experiences to them."