Chris Kamara: ‘People say ‘Unbelievable, Jeff!’ every day but I don’t mind. I’m a people person’

‘Today is a good day and, thankfully, I’ve consistently had good days lately,” Chris Kamara says as we near the end of another emotional week for him. Kamara, the former footballer who became a cherished presence on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday and various television programmes which rely on his good cheer and exuberant character, is struggling to overcome the debilitating impact of apraxia of speech.

This neurological disorder grips the usually garrulous Kamara in a way which means that, sometimes, he suffers “a complete brain fog” and cannot voice his thoughts properly. Words get confused or lost and there are occasions when his speech slows and slurs. Today, however, Kamara speaks fluently for an hour. The difficult moments, and the tricky words, are rare as he reflects movingly on his life and work.

We laugh a lot, too, because the knockabout memories are irresistible. But Kamara is at his most powerful when explaining how he confronted racism while growing up in Middlesbrough and when working in football. Calmly, and without bitterness, Kamara recalls a harrowing period when, as a young footballer, the National Front hounded him and issued death threats.

But first his new reality will be felt on Sunday afternoon. As the Premier League season’s final fixtures are played, it will sink in that his 24 years on Soccer Saturday are really over. Kamara won’t be alongside his great friend Jeff Stelling as he adjusts to the fact that his time at Sky has ended. The 64-year-old stresses that the decision was mutually agreed and there is so much TV work still rolling in despite his battle with apraxia. It is a battle Kamara is convinced he is winning.

“It’s coming together,” he says. “I’ve been throwing the kitchen sink at it so