'I played with Gareth Bale and was given three months to live - now I star in a new sport'

Aaron Aby once shared a football pitch with Gareth Bale during a training camp for Wales as a teenager. The 34-year-old represented his country at youth level after starring in the Shrewsbury Town academy but eventually turned his back on the game.

He has since turned his attention to MMA fighting after becoming a professional in 2013.

The star, who has cystic fibrosis, has excelled in the sport but had to fight off cancer seven years ago after being told he only had between three and six months to live.

After taking a break from MMA following his cancer diagnosis, he had a 15cm tumour removed from his stomach. But he returned to the sport in 2019, with his most recent bout coming in April when he was defeated by Sam Creasey at OKTAGON's Birmingham event.

And discussing his football career, Aby told talkSPORT: “I did one camp with Gareth Bale, which was a few days, but people like Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen and that, we played multiple games together.

“You can see bits in them now that was still in them then. I like to talk about Neil Taylor too because he was first to train and the last to leave, just doing a little bit of extras.

“[With Bale it was] a Wales camp in Ireland. It was maybe five days or a week where we took the team over. I actually played for the year above.

“So I would have probably been like 14 or playing for the 15s or the 16s and we went away and it was Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales in like a tournament for the week. You couldn't have imagined that Bale would end up playing for Real Madrid one day.

“It's just good to see those kids come through not gamers or anything where they weren't going out, they were like active kids and just like sport. Playing and seeing that still in them now is awesome to see when you see them and you're like, ‘They deserve it.’”

Aby then touched upon his battle with cancer as he added: “When I was coming back from the cancer, for me I wasn’t cured until I competed again. Everything really goes through your head. I don’t want to say you’re always positive or you’re always sad or not.

“Surviving is going to go through your head. I used to go through the ups and downs of locking myself in a dark room at night to, ‘Right, I’m just going to get out, crack on and go to the gym.’

“I remember one night I had my last chemo and they told me we can’t do anything else. You need to nap, but we need to get you in surgery. If the cancer comes back during that time that will be it. And I remember one night I rang up for my blood results.

“They gave the wrong blood results, told me the cancer had come back. So I remember sitting on the kitchen floor with my mum crying thinking it was over.

“Then the next day they rang back up and they had given me the wrong results. So I had the night of thinking it was over to going back, so you go through all these battles. Sometimes you just need to bite down on your gum shield and take whatever is thrown at you.”