Chris Kamara shares incredible health update ahead of TV return: 'I’ve got the old Kammy back'
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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. “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.
