EXCLUSIVE: Chris Kamara is delighted to be reuniting with his old pal Jeff Stelling to cover a Premier League fixture on Boxing Day after making a significant breakthrough with his neurological disorder
EXCLUSIVE: Chris Kamara is delighted to be reuniting with his old pal Jeff Stelling to cover a Premier League fixture on Boxing Day after making a significant breakthrough with his neurological disorder EXCLUSIVE: Chris Kamara is delighted to be reuniting with his old pal Jeff Stelling to cover a Premier League fixture on Boxing Day after making a significant breakthrough with his neurological disorder
Chris Kamara’s comeback on Boxing Day is not just a feelgood story of a national treasure’s encore as a live TV football reporter.
When he hooks up with old sidekick Jeff Stelling on Amazon Prime, and delivers bulletins from Nottingham Forest’s game with Tottenham, there will be sprinkling of Christmas magic in the air.
In a parallel universe on Sky Sports, their Soccer Saturday double act was gold dust. We all laughed when there was a red card at Portsmouth and Kammy, our man on the touchline, was the last to know.
And his description of Reading’s infamous ghost goal at Watford 16 years ago deserved a broadcast Oscar: “Jeff, unbelievable! There’s a goal, but it’s not a goal, but it’s a goal because the referee’s given it.”
“Thanks for clearing that up, Chris,” replied Stelling. Glorious satire.
But in March 2022, the laughter turned to silence. Kamara, struggling to conceal the symptoms of apraxia – a neurological disorder disrupting the transfer of thought from brain to speech – stood down from his beat.
It appeared his career on the air was over – until Good Morning Britain host Kate Garraway recommended revolutionary treatment in Mexico to help rekindle some of the fluency in his elocution. And now Kamara is preparing for his return to our screens after a call “out of the blue” offering him a curtain call at the City Ground.
In a news agenda blighted by war, ham-fisted government and dim royalty, it’s a return all of us can celebrate.
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“It was surreal to get that phone call from Andrew ‘Buzz’ Hornet, who was one of the first football producers at Sky Sports,” said Kammy, now 66 and awarded the MBE last year for services to football, charity and anti-racism.
“I was on my way to a Paul Heaton gig in Manchester – I’ve known Paul since I played for Sheffield United, he’s a big Blades fan and me invited over to one of his concerts – when Buzz called.
“I thought, ‘What does he want? And Buzz says, ‘How do you fancy being reunited with Jeff on Boxing Day?’ Er, yes – in what capacity? ‘Reporting on live football, like you normally do, at Forest v Spurs.’
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“How could I refuse? It might be one last hurrah for me in terms of covering football on the box, but to work with Jeff again will bring a bit of extra magic to Christmas for me. Of course I’m not 100 per cent, but I’m 70 per cent better than when I first disclosed my condition in public and I feel like I’ve got the old Kammy back.”
There will be no rehearsing in the bathroom mirror with a hairbrush as a make-believe microphone. He said: “The one thing about my job at Sky that I guarded more than anything was being spontaneous.
“I’ve lost that ability in a way but I’m going to try and wheel it out on Boxing Day. If I started to rehearse lines in my head, or tried to prepare some premeditated lines, then I would be guaranteed to mess it up.”
Kamara is still saddened by the way his persona disappeared from our screens three seasons ago. The warning signs had been there for about 20 months but the end was dispiriting in its brutality.
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“My last game for Sky was at Rotherham against Shrewsbury, and when I got back to the car I knew I had made a complete balls-up of it,” said Kamara, who played 778 games for nine clubs over 20 years.
“When I checked my phone, on Twitter there were loads of comments with people saying, ‘He must have been drunk’ or ‘has he had a stroke?’ I rang my therapist and said, ‘This can’t continue. I can’t go on like this.’ And he replied, ‘You can – but you need to tell everyone what’s going on.’
“That’s when I resolved to ‘come out’ and it was the moment that changed everything. Suddenly people were 100 per cent supportive and there were so many offers of help. Thankfully, one of them came from Kate Garraway, whose husband Derek had gone over to Monterrey in Mexico for treatment after contracting Long Covid.
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“She said it had helped to stimulate parts of his brain so he could read again, for example, and she said, ‘Why don’t you give it a go?’ I’ve been over to Mexico three times and it’s made such a difference.”
At his lowest ebb, Kamara feared he might have joined the cast of ex-footballers visited by the blight of dementia from half a lifetime of heading a ball. It was a scary time before the definitive diagnosis of speech apraxia.
“Doctors asked me how many concussions I had suffered as a player – there were three,” he said. “And of course there were dark moments where it messes with your head. You’re doing these reports live to camera and I know I’m not me any more, but I’m not letting anyone or anybody know what’s going on.
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“These little voices in your head are asking, ‘Could it be dementia? Could it be Alzheimer’s?’ Now I know the truth, I can handle it. I’m working as much as I can, especially to help children with speech and language conditions, and I’ve stopped being a bloke who’s too stubborn to ask for help.
“The past of my brain that’s been affected is the one that governs your memory speech fluency, but I can still sing and I can still do a Scottish accent – or both.”
With that, Kamara broke into broad Caledonian articulation and he’s right: Perhaps his speech is more measured, but we’ve got our Kammy back. Never mind Forest and Spurs on Boxing Day: Stelling calling the shots and Kamara’s encore which will give any cold turkey a run for its money.
But if Kammy’s off the leash, Hogmanay will be a hoot. Merry Christmas to a football legend and a man of the people.
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