Darrell Currie shares harrowing health ordeal as beloved TV presenter confesses 'I’m not sure I wanted to be alive'

Acclaimed broadcaster and presenter Darrell Currie has opened up on the health nightmare that has forced him to step away from the job that he loves.

The Scot previously played a starring role in presenting BT Sport's (now known as TNT Sports) coverage of Scottish football working alongside leading pundits such as former Celtic star Chris Sutton and Rangers hero Ally McCoist. Currie also garnered more widespread recognition when he memorably managed to probe Eden Hazard into revealing that he was set to leave Chelsea to join Real Madrid during a post-match interview after the Blues won the Europa League in 2019.

But the 41-year-old has now shed light on a mysterious illness that has kept him away from our television screens for the past two years. In September 2022, the Glasgow-born broadcaster was hosting BT Sport's coverage of Celtic's clash with Real Madrid at Parkhead in the Champions League when he began to feel excruciating pain which he said felt like a "bomb went off in my brain."

In a emotional interview with The Athletic, he said: "It felt like a bomb went off in my brain. The second it happened, I remember holding onto my chair. I felt dizzy, like I was going to fall out of my seat and pass out. I managed to finish the chat and get to the break but I came off air feeling terrible. Walking back to the TV trucks, it felt like the ground wasn’t there. I had no real sense of where I was.”

Currie headed down to London the next morning to present another Champions League game after a late night appointment with a private GP diagnosed him with labyrinthitis — inflammation of the ear. But it was three weeks later while presenting the Nations League meeting between Scotland and the Republic of Ireland that the devastating feeling of pain resurfaced.

He added: "I texted the producer during the second half asking how long the post-match segment was,” says Currie. “I was struggling to stand up and every time I was turning my head to chat to the pundits, I felt like going to faint or fall over.

“I take a lot of pride in my work so I would never, ever not finish a programme, but that night the producer saw something was not right with me. He came into the stadium during the game and said he was taking it out of my hands: I was being taken off air. It was the biggest weight off my shoulders.

“Things unfortunately for the next few weeks got worse and worse. I went on a crazy meandering run of trying to see neurosurgeons, neurologists, cardiologists and some of the best doctors around. I must have had 20 or 30 MRI's.”

The popular reporter and presenter hasn't appeared on live television since and admits the absence has really hit him hard. “For those few months after that diagnosis, I’m not sure I wanted to be alive,” explained Currie. “I would talk to my wife often about, ‘What is the point in being here?’ I couldn’t really see the light of day.

“I would never have committed suicide, as I remember speaking to Kris Boyd about his charity (the brother of the ex Rangers striker took his own life) and I know how that can be for your family, leaving them like that. I never told anyone I was thinking of it, but I was genuinely trying to think of ways I could do it — even if that was abroad so it was something assisted,” he says. “The pain was horrific. My neck felt broken, my back felt broken, my whole body felt broken. I could barely hold my head up. I was questioning everything.”

Currie believes he is on the road to recovery but is unsure if he will be able to return the world of sports broadcasting. He added: “There is no way I could have even sat here and spoken to you 18 months, a year or probably even six months ago. I don’t know if I’m going to get back to who I was. I have accepted that, but I am going to give it a bloody good try and find a way to keep living.”