Dominic Matteo: ‘Basically, I played my whole football career with a brain tumour’

Dominic Matteo, photographed at his home near Halifax in West Yorkshire, said he had to ‘relearn this, relearn that’ – it was ‘horrible, it was hard’. Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian

Draw a square. That was all Dominic Matteo had to do. Yet when pen met paper to complete the seemingly simple task, Matteo created a circle.

His therapists repeated the instructions. His wife, Jess, lovingly willed him on. He drew another round shape. “I just couldn’t do it,” Matteo says. “I was embarrassed. I was so frustrated. I was really, really struggling at that point. It was so bizarre.”