David Brooks has opened up on his recovery from cancer, with the Bournemouth and Wales winger admitting that football paled into insignificance as he fought back from stage-two Hodgkin lymphoma. Brooks, who returned to Premier League action last month, has revealed he put on 15kg (2st 5lb) after six months of chemotherapy and said his household was tearful after learning he would return to playing.
Brooks confirmed he was cancer-free in March 2022 but a hamstring problem delayed his first-team return. The 25-year-old received a warm ovation from both sets of supporters after making his first-team comeback as a second-half substitute at Aston Villa, 536 days on from his previous appearance.
Three days later he scored a hat-trick for Bournemouth’s development squad on his first start for 18 months and this month he made another appearance as a substitute in a Premier League defeat by Brighton. “Football was my life for 24 years before I was diagnosed and for a brief moment, in the grand scheme of things, football didn’t matter,” Brooks told Premier League Productions. “It was about my health and my mentality.”
The Football Association of Wales medical staff helped detect the illness in the buildup to matches against the Czech Republic and Estonia in October 2021 after Brooks reported symptoms synonymous with a cancer diagnosis. Brooks said he had been struggling to sleep, experienced night sweats, noticed a sudden drop in weight and “couldn’t get my legs to take me where they needed to go”.
“I went for a blood test that evening and had more tests the following day and within 24 hours I was back in London having a biopsy,” Brooks said. “We were yet to receive confirmation but the doctor told me that it did look like it was cancer and that I needed to prepare myself for that news. You almost don’t want to believe it. When you hear the word ‘cancer’ as a young lad you don’t expect yourself to be in that position where you need to know everything about it, unless you’ve had a relative that has gone through that process.
“I’m not in touch with my emotions on a day-to-day basis but when a cancer diagnosis comes into play, it’s just very different. It’s difficult to stay composed in that situation but I never really let it out until I was on my own. I didn’t want a fuss and just let everyone do what they needed to do, then when I was on my own I had a bit of a cry and hoped everything was going to be all right.
“I was diagnosed with stage-two Hodgkin lymphoma and the prognosis was a positive one. I was told I would be given six months of chemotherapy and would hopefully be OK after that. You have to be prepared that you might not get good news at the end of that period and deal with it as it lies, but I had to have it in my head that it was six months of chemo and then just try to get back playing.”
Brooks said he initially found the cancer treatment not as difficult as feared before the reality hit home after the second and third rounds of chemotherapy. “My girlfriend used to come to every chemo and I remember just trying to fall asleep so I wouldn’t be sick,” he said. Of his comeback, he said: “I’d lost every bit of muscle and put on more than 15kg of weight, so I needed to get that off me and put muscle on before I could even think about stepping on a pitch again.”
Clearance to play was another emotional moment. “There were a few tears in the house when they told me,” he said. “I was just over the moon that it had worked and I didn’t have to go through it any more.”
Brooks said he was able to celebrate Bournemouth’s promotion last season for about 15 minutes before feeling “completely out of breath”. He could feature for Bournemouth at home to West Ham on Sunday and is expected to return to Rob Page’s Wales squad for June’s Euro 2024 qualifiers at home to Armenia and away to Turkey.
“The thought that I might not be able to do what I dreamt of all my life was a difficult thought,” Brooks said. “But I never stopped trying and thankfully my body managed to pull together to get me back. Now I just want to be as fit as possible whenever I’m called upon.”
