7 sports personalities who fought cancer

#6 Jonas Gutierrez: testicular cancer

Saving Newcastle United from relegation in 2015, Gutierrez had fought cancer the year before

Deportivo midfielder Jonas Gutierrez began his international football career at 18, representing Argentine club Velez Sarsfield, moving on to one of Spain’s oldest football clubs, RCD Mallorca a few years later.

Capped for Argentina 22 times, he was regarded as an essential part of the international side alongside Lionel Messi by footballing legend Diego Maradona.

In 2008, Gutierrez was bought by English club Newcastle United, and two years later won the Championship title with the team. In 2015, Gutierrez, playing what would eventually be his last match with Newcastle, scored a goal on the final day of the season that would be crucial in saving the team from relegation.

He took Newcastle to a 2-0 victory over West Ham at St James’ Park, saving the team from eventual relegation in the league.

Only the previous year, in mid-September, Gutierrez revealed he had been diagnosed with, and was undergoing treatment for testicular cancer, which he had been diagnosed with following a game against Arsenal in 2013. During treatment for soreness in his groin following an injury, Gutierrez’ doctors initially misdiagnosed the issue before it escalated. Eventually, after the pain and inflmattio

Like cyclist Lance Armstrong, Gutierrez had an orchiectomy, with oncologists excising the testicle. That would not be the end of his battle against the disease, however.

In the time following his surgery, the Argentine had been loaned out to Norwich City for the remainder of the 2013-14 season. In that time, his pain returned, with the footballer experiencing serious swelling in his lymph nodes.

Nearly a year after his first surgery, Gutierrez began chemotherapy, only telling a few teammates of his battle, and was in remission at the time of his successes for Newcastle last year.

He alleged mismanagement by then-manager Alan Pardew, who he says told him to find a new club in the immediate aftermath of his orchiectomy, and was eventually let go by the team at the end of the 2015 season.