Chris Kamara: former Leeds United star opens up about illness affecting his speech - what is apraxia?

Chris Kamara, former Leeds United and Bradford City midfielder, has recently opened up about his apraxia diagnosis and his experiences with the condition.

The condition affects his ability to speak - which had an effect on his punditry and presenting career.

Kamara is perhaps best known for his humourous appearances on Sky Sports’ Gillette Soccer Saturday - including one infamous occurrence where he mistook a player being sent off for a substitution.

As well as football punditry, he has also presented TV game shows, including Total Wipeout.

Due to his condition, Kamara retired from football punditry at the conclusion of the 2021/22 football season to an outpour of tributes - though he did not disclose his reasons at the time.

What is apraxia?

Apraxia is a term that covers a wide range of conditions - the variant that Chris Kamara has been diagnosed with is known as apraxia of speech.

The condition does not affect your ability to comprehend spoken words - instead, it makes it much more difficult to formulate sentences orally, to the point where you may not be able to speak at all.

It does not cause weakness in the muscles needed to create spoken words, but it does make coordinating them very difficult.

On his experience with the condition, Kamara said: "My boys had been saying to my wife ‘there’s something wrong with dad’ for a while, and she’d broach it with me and I’d be quite snappy, which I’m not anyway, and say I’m fine. It’s harder for people close to you, I think.

"I’d say [to my boys] I’ve just had a bad day, don't worry, I’ll be fine, but they know. You can’t pull the wool over their eyes for too long."

When did Chris Kamara play for Leeds United?

Kamara spent three seasons at Elland Road, starting in the 1989/90 season and culminating in the 1991/92 campaign. During this time, however, he would only make 20 appearances.

This was largely due to there being an abundance of midfielders at the club at the time - moreover, he was also struggling with ongoing achilles tendon injuries. In November of 1991, Kamara joined Luton Town for a fee of £150,000.

He also enjoyed a spell at Bradford City in 1994/95, before going on to manage them until January 1998.

Additionally, Kamara had stints with other clubs in Yorkshire, including Sheffield United and Middlesbrough (his hometown club).