[6] He became one of the best known defenders in English football in the 1980s, playing initially for Bristol Rovers before joining the first division club Tottenham Hotspur, where he became captain and won 16 caps for England, scoring against Yugoslavia in 1986.

This incident led to him being held as something of a folk hero at Coventry City, with a fanzine being named Gary Mabbutt's Knee.

[7][8][9] Having sustained a fractured skull and eye socket in November 1993 from Wimbledon striker John Fashanu's elbow in an aerial challenge,[10] an injury after which he became the first player to wear a protective mask on the pitch even after a three-month absence,[11] he suffered a broken leg on the opening day of the 1996–97 season and did not return until the following campaign, at the end of which he retired from playing after 16 years at White Hart Lane.

He famously appeared on the BBC's children's television programme Blue Peter where he demonstrated injecting insulin into an orange to show how he dealt with his condition on a daily basis.

[14] In 2013, Mabbutt had surgery to save his left leg, following a bout of peripheral arterial disease, brought on by his diabetes.

While on holiday with his daughter in the Kruger National Park, in South Africa, Mabbutt, who has little feeling in his feet due to diabetic neuropathy, awoke to find a rat had eaten part of his foot and had bitten one toe to the bone.