{"id":177073,"date":"2025-06-12T00:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T00:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/177073\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T00:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T00:54:12","slug":"sam-thompson-shares-health-update-ahead-of-soccer-aid-2025-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/177073\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Thompson shares health update ahead of Soccer Aid 2025 match"},"content":{"rendered":"

The I’m A Celebrity winner will play in the Soccer Aid match at Old Trafford this weekend\"SamSam Thompson completed a 260-mile challenge in aid of Soccer Aid for UNICEF(Image: Gareth Cattermole\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Sam Thompson had taken to social media to issue an update on his physical health following his gruelling challenge in aid of Soccer Aid for UNICEF. The I’m a Celebrity winner completed his ‘Match Ball Mission’ <\/a>which saw him run and cycle over 260 miles from Stamford Bridge to Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

Sam raised a whopping \u00a31.5 million for Soccer Aid<\/a> ahead of the charity match, which is set to take place at Old Trafford on Sunday. A huge number of famous faces will take to the pitch including Tyson Fury, Steven Bartlett, Paddy McGuiness, Steph Houghton, Jill Scott, Louis Tomlinson, Sam Quek and Sir Mo Farah.<\/a><\/p>\n

Although fans may think Sam has already played a huge part in Soccer Aid 2025, he is still determined to take to the pitch despite feeling “done in” after his challenge.<\/p>\n

The Made in Chelsea star took to social media to show fans his preparation for the event on Sunday. He posted a photograph to his Instagram story where he appears to have his legs soaking in an ice bath.<\/p>\n

He wrote: “Trying to get those legs right for Soccer Aid.” The determined star added: “I WILL play a part” followed by a laughing face emoji.”<\/p>\n

\"SamSam Thompson hopes to play in the Soccer Aid 2025 match this weekend(Image: Instagram\/Sam Thompson)<\/p>\n

Sam Thompson will play for team England in the match, <\/a>which kicks off at 7:30pm on Sunday, June 15. His teammates include Steven Bartlett, Sir Mo Farah, Paddy McGuinness, Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Jill Scott.<\/p>\n

His opponents as part of the World XI team include Gorka Marquez, Noah Beck, Richard Gadd and his good friend from his stint in the jungle, Tony Bellew. Dermot O\u2019Leary returns as host and he will be joined by former England footballer Alex Scott.<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Sam Thompson sparked debate as fans were surprised to see him display a new look. He appeared on This Morning alongside hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard.<\/p>\n

Despite talking about his recent Soccer Aid challenge<\/a>, viewers were distracted during the interview as they noticed that Sam had dyed his signature blonde locks a dark shade of brown.<\/p>\n

One individual posted on X (formerly Twitter<\/a>), “What has Sam done to his hair? Has he dyed it?” reports Wales Online<\/a>. Another added: “A new Sam with that hair dye,” while a third said: “Has Sam dyed his hair and beard?”<\/p>\n

Speaking about the triumphant event,<\/a> he said: “I’ve got to stop crying. It makes me so emotional, so many tears. I just want to say from the start of it, thank you so much for your support. Every time I saw you and heard you, it made me so emotional, so I really, really appreciate it.”<\/p>\n

Sam continued: “It feels like a dream and a slight nightmare. All the training, you don’t really know what you’re training for almost… It’s nothing like it, you’ve got a team surrounding you.<\/p>\n

“We filmed a documentary by the way, which is coming out this Friday. And you’ve got a camera in front of you the entire time, with a camera sticking out of the boot of the van, filming all your highs and lows.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got people all around you, people beeping their horns at you. You can’t really prepare for anything like that… It’s really overwhelming but in the most beautiful way, it brings so many people together.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The I’m A Celebrity winner will play in the Soccer Aid match at Old Trafford this weekendSam Thompson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,208,2465,29189,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-177073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-itv","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-soccer-aid","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114667668491085242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}