Chris Kamara ‘feels like a fraud’ and came close to quitting broadcasting amid apraxia diagnosis

Chris Kamara has opened up about his apraxia diagnosis, saying he ‘feels like a fraud’ amid his broadcasting career.

The football pundit announced in March that he had been diagnosed with apraxia, after some viewers noticed he had struggled with his speech on Soccer Saturday.

People with apraxia struggle with certain motor movements, even though their muscles are normal. It can often affect speech, as in Chris’ case.

The star, also known as Kammy, admitted he was initially reluctant to speak about his condition, but has now opened up at length about how it’s impacted his life.

‘I feel a fraud now, in terms of broadcasting. I don’t bring to the table what I used to. So that’s hard. My life, away from the screen, couldn’t be any better – grandkids, family, it’s perfect,’ Chris, 64, said on the Diary of a CEO podcast.

‘You feel a fraud?’ host Steven Bartlett asked.

Chris is returning to ITV to present The Games (Picture: Nick England/Getty Images)

‘Yeah. I feel I’m doing these programmes and they’re not getting the best of me, but they’re tolerating me. That’s how it feels,’ he explained.

He added that he thinks perhaps he should have ‘bowed out’ when he left Sky Sports.

‘Am I tarnishing what I had?’ he questioned.

Chris added that he considered quitting broadcasting altogether after receiving his diagnosis, however, many of the channels he worked with during his career requested he stay.

Chris quit Sky Sports this year after 24 yeas (Picture: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

He did, however, feel it was time to leave Sky Sports after 24 years, with friends including Jeff Stelling paying tribute to the beloved presenter and his incredible career.

Meanwhile, he is taking steps to mitigate the impact of the condition on his life, including a treatment that involves microcurrents being pumped through his body for seven hours per day, which he says has got him back to about 60% of his ‘old self’.

Chris previously said of his apraxia on Good Morning Britain: ‘If I explain my apraxia, we take for granted the fact when we think and coming through our speech it’s comfortable, it’s easy, it’s natural,

‘My apraxia, when it’s bad stops those signals from that brain going to that mouth. It slows it down, at times it slurs the words as well.

‘People are looking thinking, “Is he all right? Is he drunk? What’s the matter with him?”‘

‘When I put out the message after Soccer Saturday, I never in a million years expected that response, but everyone has been so brilliant, so kind.

‘People have got in touch who I haven’t spoken to in 30 or 40 years to wish me well.’

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