Jose Enrique: ‘It was more or less one person in a million could have this.’

Jose Enrique has described what he went through when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour, thanking medical staff and fans and former Liverpool teammates.

The left-back played 99 times for the Reds, moving from Newcastle under Kenny Dalglish in 2011 for a fee of £7million.

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Jose Enrique with his wife after a successful surgery last month.

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The 32-year-old described his first signs of illness first appeared when he had blurred vision when attending dinner with Brighton manager Chris Hughton in his new role as a football agent.

Speaking to liverpoolfc.com, he said: “Like every other person, we waited there eight or nine hours to do all the tests and everything,” he said. “They talked to St George’s Hospital in London, which is just for neurosurgery, and they wanted to see me.

“They did another test and a doctor came and said, ‘I don’t want to scare you – I know the word tumour everyone thinks cancer and it’s going to spread everywhere and you’re going to die, it’s not that’.

“It was a tumour near the nerves of my left eye and that’s why I wasn’t seeing properly. It’s not normal, this type of tumour, normally you have it on the back or the spine, it was more or less one person in a million could have this.”

The former Newcastle, Valencia, and Villarreal defender only option was to undergo surgery through the nose.

“The solution was surgery, 100 per cent, through the nose and not to open my head or anything,” he continued.

“Before I got the operation, the doctor said to me, ‘Jose, I cannot promise you that you’re going to see like you used to see’. Being a 32-year-old, they tell you that… That was not nice.”

Following a successful surgery, Enrique expressed his thanks to doctors, fans and former teammates.

The reality is until something like this happens to you, you do not appreciate what they (medical professionals) do,” he said.

“They are behind the scenes and no-one sees them and they do this type of job every day.

“The fans have been amazing. It was impossible to reply because there were thousands and thousands of them!

“I can’t thank them enough and this is an opportunity to say thanks to the club. Jordan Henderson sent me a text as well; he was at the World Cup focusing on that and he still texted me to wish me good luck, that was nice for me.

“A lot of my ex-teammates, like Dejan Lovren, also contacted me.

“It gives you a little bit more strength.”

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Source: anfieldhq.com