Presenter Darrell Currie opens up on ‘chronic pain condition’ that forced him off TV in 2022 and has left him fighting for his life ever since

TNT Sports host Darrell Currie opens up about the illness that has left him fighting for his life for the past two years.

The 41-year-old was a regular fixture on BT Sport’s coverage of Scottish football and the Champions League until his life suddenly took a turn for the worse in September 2022.

Currie was live on the broadcast, working with Michael Owen, Chris Sutton and Gordon Strachan on a Champions League clash between Celtic and Real Madrid.

The presenter then developed a severe headache, marking the beginning of a health nightmare that has plagued him ever since.

He told The Athletics: ‘It felt like a bomb went off in my brain. Like something went off in my head. The second it happened, I remember holding on to my chair.

‘I felt dizzy, like I was going to fall off my chair and faint. I finished the interview and made it to the break, but I came out of the blue feeling awful.

“When I walked back to the TV vans, it felt like the ground wasn’t there. I had no idea where I was.”

Currie, who was initially diagnosed with an ear infection (labyrinthitis), was due to host another match the next day, but he said his producer intervened and took him off the air.

‘I had trouble getting up and every time I turned my head to talk to the experts I felt like I was going to faint or fall.

Currie was a regular feature in BT Sport’s coverage of Scottish and European football

‘I take great pride in my work, so I would never, ever not finish a show, but that night the producer saw something was wrong with me. He came into the stadium during the game and said he would take it off my hands: I was taken off the air. That was the biggest weight off my shoulders.’

That was the last time Currie was able to work on live television as the pain began to spread throughout his body.

Before joining BT Sport (now TNT Sports), Currie worked for BBC Scotland, CNN International and ESPN.

A specialist in Germany eventually told Currie that he thought he had early symptoms of arachnoiditis, a rare, progressive inflammatory disease that affects the part of the body that protects the nerves of the brain and spinal cord.

The presenter was shocked to read about the way paralysis worsens over time.

Currie said: ‘In those few months after the diagnosis, I wasn’t sure I wanted to live anymore.

“I often asked myself, ‘What’s the point of being here?’ I couldn’t really see the light of day.

“I would never have committed suicide. I remember talking to Kris Boyd about his charity and I know what it must be like for your family to leave them like that.

‘I never told anyone I was thinking about it, but I really tried to think of how I could do it – even if it was overseas, so that it would be something with support.

“The pain was terrible. My neck felt broken, my back felt broken, my whole body felt broken. I could barely hold my head up. I doubted everything.”