Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] My son is 9yrs old & has spherocytosis, he has an enlarged spleen. He plays football and now wants to play rugby should we be worried about not wearing a spleen guard. He also has crohns so the option of spleen removal has now been put on the back burner. Thanks
[|AI|]  You are caught between a rock and a hard place.  Splenectomy would improve the phagocytosis but the presence of Crowns puts the halt on that.  Is the diagnosis of Crowns a firm one or one in progress?  Has he been tested for celiac disease? Independent of the above issues, football and rugby are high risk sports for any 9-year-old and recurrent concussions have occurred more often that we like in both.  Would your son consider an alternative sport such as a martial art or swimming for example.  If he were my patient, I would discourage the football and rugby even if we were not worried about his spleen.