Another display at St James Park against Manchester United on Wednesday created as much excitement with the Geordie faithful in the ground as the heavily anticipated arrival of DFS’s next sale. In fact, the only time the stadium surpassed at least ten decibels was for a person whom managed to finally get onto the pitch, Jonas Gutierrez.
The last time he featured for Newcastle’s first team was against Cardiff City on 2 October 2013 and was then deemed surplus to requirements by the then manager, Alan Pardew, and was shipped out on loan to league strugglers, Norwich City, to try to gain some game time. However, he was only granted four appearances due to suffering a calf injury and a change of manager. As Norwich were relegated, he returned back to Newcastle’s Benton base.
At this point, what very few people knew was that he was in the middle of the ‘toughest game of his life’. He explained how after a collision with Bacary Sagna, in the last game of the 2012/13 season caused a lot of pain in his testicle, but the doctor dismissed this as ‘nothing’. However, his testicle started to swell up and was inflamed in October 2013. As he went back to the doctor, the doctor detected a tumour and told him he would need an ultrasound the following day.
Unfortunately, the cancer had spread to other parts of his body and this was only spotted during a scheduled check up in the summer of 2014 and so had to undergo intensive chemotherapy. But the ensuing chemotherapy didn’t stop him from running 26.2 miles, in October, in the Buenos Aires Marathon in a bid to raise money and awareness for a cancer charity back home in Argentina.
One month later, Jonas posted a picture of a new tattoo of lyrics from an Eminem song, celebrating beating testicular cancer, marking the end of a yearlong battle against the disease. Nevertheless, the war was not finished: epitomising his character, in no time he was training to regain his fitness. Remarkably, on 22 December 2013, Jonas made his comeback by skippering the Newcastle Under-21s to a 4-1 win against West Ham, playing an astonishing 87 minutes.
Now, from being told he would never play for Newcastle United again, to facing news, which was career threatening, he was named on the bench on Saturday against Aston Villa for the first team. Although he did not get on the pitch, it was inevitable he would finally make a first team appearance against Manchester United on Wednesday.
Finally, the war had finally finished on the 64th minute of the Manchester United clash. As he was preparing himself to come on, the whole stadium awoke, stood up, and ruptured into applause, creating an atmosphere that would have touched every person’s heart. The noise only grew louder and louder until the eventual moment came and for an added special touch, his good friend, Coloccini passed over the captain’s armband.
He has the nickname of the superhero, ‘spiderman’, due to his celebration. However, when he stepped back on the football pitch, he is now a superhero in his own right.
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