Former Newcastle United defender Jose Enrique has revealed that he’s been diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer that he feared was going to leave him blind.

The ex-United defender was diagnosed with a chordoma after being struck down by a brutal headache while in England meeting his former Newcastle manager Chris Hughton - and has spoken of the “worst days of his life” as he recovers from the opertaion and its aftermath.

Enrique feared he would be left blind after he begun to lose his vision and says he was left fearing for his life after the shock diagnosis. He revealed he was facing months of recovery and radiotherapy in an emotional instagram post on Saturday morning.

“This has made me value life even more, soccer players live in a bubble, it’s an unreal life. You lose yourself and you think you’re invincible. When you play soccer, your head does not think about things like this,” he told Spanish sports ‘paper Marca .

Enrique quit football last year to become an agent with his brother and was meeting Hughton to discuss business around a month ago when he became aware something was not right.

“We were meeting with Chris Hughton, coach of the Brighton who I know from my time at Newcastle, and that night I was beginning to be troubled by pains, I arrived at the hotel and thought they were migraines.

“During the night I had a brutal headache and the next morning I started to see blurry, then I started to see double. I had my eyes open and I saw double, I had to go to the emergency room and after nine hours there I had a CT scan and they sent me to see neurologists. The test indicated that I had a problem – I was sent to St. George’s Hospital in London immediately, specializing in neurology and I spent two nights there.”

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He was told he had a chardoma and in one devastating exchange with a surgeon he was told he may lose his vision.

“It is a tumor located in a complicated area of ​​the head – it is very rare and unusual. it was located behind the eye, that is why I now wear a patch,” he told Marca.

Enrique was operated on last week in Valencia and underwent complex nine-hour surgery. “It was a complex surgery, Dr. Simal and his team operated on me last week – I went into the operating room at 9 in the morning and I left at 6 in the afternoon, the tumor was stuck to the artery and it was a complicated intervention.

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“The surgeons did an exceptional job. I was in the ICU for 24 hours and I am very grateful to the work of Dr. Simal and his medical team. They were the worst days of my life I stayed in bed for five days without moving.”

He has been told not to lift weights and his bed has been adapted to sleep in a position of 30 degrees so he does not raise the blood pressure in his head.

The surgery has seen him lose six kilos and he now faces 35 sessions of radiotherapy at just one of four machines in Europe that treats his rare form of cancer.

“There are only four machines in Europe. My options are to go to Zurich or Paris and I will have to receive 35 sessions, I will be about a month and a half away from although that is the least of it, I just want to get well,” he said.

Stars from the World Cup have sent him goodwill messages and he says he hopes to be fully recovered by September. His message on Instagram this morning read: “Sorry i haven’t been around much, It has been the toughest few weeks of my life.. Within the space of one month I have found out the news that I have a rare brain tumor and had surgery to have it removed, I am now in recovery and so thankful, Life is too precious.”