Chris Kamara has revealed he is set for a commentary comeback after a health battle which left him struggling to speak.
Kamara was a familiar and popular figure on Sky Sports for several years before health problems forced him to step back.
The 66-year-old, who played as a midfielder for several EFL clubs before retiring in 1995, reported back to the Sky Sports studio from grounds around the country on Soccer Saturday and co-hosted the Goals on Sunday highlights show.
Kamara spent a total of 24 years at Sky Sports before leaving at the end of the 2021-22 football season.
Around the time of his departure Kamara revealed he had been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid after experiencing ‘brain fog’ during an interview on The One Show.
In March 2022 he was diagnosed with speech apraxia, a disorder which results in limited and difficult speech ability, and said he would be stepping back from sports presenting.
But, almost three years on, Kamara is set to return to the job he loves as part of Amazon Prime’s Premier League coverage on Boxing Day.
‘Best phone call ever this afternoon,’ he wrote on X. ‘Amazon inviting me to do the [Nottingham] Forest v Spurs game on Boxing Day.
‘Reporting back to the Unbelievable Jeff Stelling in the studio. I thought I was done, so it’s a big thank you Amazon. I’m back.’
Football fans enjoyed Kamara’s passionate, sometimes chaotic, reporting and the relationship he had with former Sky Sports presenter Stelling.
‘Unbelievable Jeff’ became a catchphrase on the show and a humorous moment he failed to realise a player had been sent off has become iconic.
In an interview back in 2022, ‘Kammy’ said he felt like a ‘fraud’ as he continued to do some TV work while living with speech apraxia.
‘I feel a fraud now in terms of broadcasting – I don’t bring to the table what I used to,’ he said.
‘I feel I’m doing these programmes and they’re not getting the best of me – they’re tolerating me, that’s how it feels. You take your old self for granted.
‘It feels like someone has taken over my voice box. The voice that used to come out would come out at 300 miles an hour on Soccer Saturday, motormouth, talking and not even waiting for a breath, just keep going and going.
‘Now when I hear myself or see myself on TV it’s someone else. It’s really strange.
‘Some days the message from the brain to the mouth is really slow and makes it difficult, or some days the words come out different than what you’re trying to say – and that’s even weirder.
‘That’s been hard to accept – and is still hard to accept.’
Kamara made more than 600 appearances across a 20-year football career, playing for the likes of Brentford, Portsmouth, Swindon Town, Stoke City and Luton Town.
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