When Sol Bamba lay in bed for four days straight, his body shattered by a first round of chemotherapy and his mind momentarily beaten, days like this seemed an impossibility.
On Saturday afternoon, live on BBC One, the 37-year-old will be part of a Middlesbrough team attempting to make it a hat-trick of Premier League scalps when facing Chelsea in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
To get here, they needed Bamba to score during a penalty-shootout victory at Manchester United in the fourth round. He then helped see out a 1-0 win over Spurs to set up this tie against the European champions.
Sol Bamba (right) will be part of a Middlesbrough side that faces Chelsea in the FA Cup on Saturday after overcoming cancer
Twelve months ago, the French-born defender was being treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare form of cancer.
‘After the first chemo I was down for four days,’ he tells Sportsmail. ‘I could not get out of bed. I lost weight. After that, I told my missus, “I’m not going for the second round”. The way I was, in that moment, it was awful.
‘When I was going through chemo, I never thought for one minute I would come back and play. And I never thought about scoring penalties at Old Trafford – nights like that seemed a million miles away.’
Friends later commented on how relaxed Bamba appeared when smashing his side’s fifth spot-kick into the bottom corner.
The 37-year-old scored his side’s fifth spot-kick in their FA Cup scalp of Manchester United
‘Don’t get me wrong, I did not want to miss, but there are worse things in life,’ he says. ‘I realise that. Everything I’d been through made me calm. All I was thinking was, “I’m just gonna stick this away”.’
Bamba’s family will be at the Riverside Stadium later, including his son Roonea, 17, and daughters Lily, 15, and Amy, 10.
When Chelsea requested for supporters to be barred from the game earlier this week – later to be withdrawn after widespread condemnation – they perhaps had not considered the effect on the likes of Bamba, for whom the poignancy of this occasion extends beyond a football match.
‘It would have been devastating,’ he says of the prospect of his family being locked out by Chelsea’s demands.
Chelsea requested the FA Cup clash at the Riverside Stadium to be played behind closed doors
‘We want to enjoy every moment now. I’m not going to say I did not realise how fortunate I was before – I always knew this is the best job in the world. But when you go through what I did, it makes you realise how lucky you really are.’
It was on Christmas Eve of 2020 that Bamba, an Ivory Coast international formerly of Leicester, Leeds and Cardiff, was told he had cancer.
‘There was disbelief, but I also tried to rationalise it. I was like, “How can I be 35, fit and healthy, and all of a sudden have cancer? Have I done something wrong? Have I eaten the wrong things?”. Straight away the doctor told me it was not my fault, it was simply unfortunate. My first thought then was about my children, and how I would tell them.’
It was during that subsequent conversation when, for the first time, Bamba considered his own mortality.
‘My youngest daughter, she was nine, asked, “Are you going to die?”. That hit me. That was the first time I realised, “It could happen”. I did not know what to say.
The Ivory Coast international was told he had cancer on Christmas Eve of 2020
‘The doctor was very clear in telling us how to explain to the children. He said, “Don’t lie”. The kids will find out, they deserve the truth. I told my daughter there was a small possibility. As soon as they heard the C word, they feared the worst. I had to stay strong for my family.’
In May of last year, after his fourth and final round of chemo, Bamba was locked away in a hotel for three days doing his coaching badges when his phone rang.
Bamba was told he was cancer-free while doing his coaching badges
‘It was the doctor. She said, “You are cancer-free”. I won’t lie – I did cry. Everyone else in the room was so happy for me. But in that moment, I didn’t think about me. I thought about my mum and dad, my children, my brother and sister. I remember when I told them I had cancer, I promised them I would be OK. So, to be able to tell them I was all-clear, it is a relief, it is massive. Everyone cried.
‘My kids don’t like to express themselves too much, but since I’ve been sick, they are different. They tell me how they feel. They have said how much they enjoy seeing me play. They come to away games, whereas before they always wanted to stay with their friends. Now, they realise how things can change in a heartbeat, and they want to make the most of it.’
After victory at Old Trafford, Bamba tweeted, ‘I’m too old for this s***’, responding to a picture of him motionless on the halfway line while his team-mates ran to celebrate. Another win this evening and it could well nudge him towards retirement and a career in coaching.
‘I’ve got to say, if we get to the final or the semi, I’ve got to finish there! Most of the younger lads here will probably go on to play in the Premier League and at Wembley, but there is no guarantee.
‘If you’ve got a chance, do it now, you have to take it.’