Jose Enrique: You think you're invincible as a footballer, but I thought I was doing to die Football Doctors had discovered a tumour

Jose Enrique has recognised that his ongoing battle with cancer was strangely made easier by him having to retire from football eight months previously.

The Spaniard was diagnosed with a chordoma, a rare type of cancerous tumour that can occur anywhere along the spine, last May after he fell ill while having dinner with his former boss at Newcastle, Chris Hughton.

Jose Enrique, now 33, had been forced to retire eight months previously due to a long-term knee injury that he picked up while playing for Liverpool in September 2013.

"I was trying to be positive," he said to The Times.

"The experience [of retiring] prepared me for what happened last year.

"I found it easier to accept this [tumour] than the end of my football career."

The former Celta Vigo, Villarreal, Newcastle, Liverpool and Real Zaragoza left-back revealed his fear upon hearing the news, however.

"When you hear it's a malignant tumour, the first thing I thought was that I was going to die," said Jose Enrique.

"When you're a football player you think you're invincible because you're in shape, but when something like that happens you get scared."