Jamie O’Hara's Algarve Nightmare: Food Poisoning from Cheese on Toast
Jamie O’Hara’s Algarve break has turned into a nightmare – and the culprit, he says, is as humble as it gets: cheese on toast.
The former Tottenham midfielder and talkSPORT regular flew to Portugal for a few quiet days of sun in Albufeira. Instead, he ended up in a hospital bed, hooked up to a drip, documenting the ordeal on his Instagram story on Wednesday night.
“Got food poisoning from cheese on toast in Albufeira,” he wrote, a line that instantly lit up the talkSPORT airwaves.
Back in the UK, the revelation landed with a mix of disbelief and mischief on the Breakfast show. Shebahn Aherne and Gabby Agbonlahor could not quite get their heads around it.
“Is that possible?” Agbonlahor asked on air.
“I don’t think it is possible,” Aherne replied. “I think he’s had something dodgy before the cheese on toast.”
Agbonlahor, never far from a punchline, painted his own theory. “He took his own cheese over to Portugal with him, it’s gone off and he’s eaten it, and got food poisoning?”
The pair then tried to make some medical sense of it. Aherne floated listeriosis as a potential explanation – an infection that, according to the NHS, can be triggered by soft, mould-ripened cheeses such as camembert and brie and can leave you feeling very unwell.
If the studio was laughing, O’Hara certainly was not. He sent in a video update that underlined just how rough he felt.
“Boys, it’s not good, I’m in a bad place,” he said. “I can’t come on, I am struggling. I’m out in Portugal, I’ve got food poisoning from cheese on toast.
“You’ll love this one as well, the restaurant that I got it from, do you know what it’s called? Fat Cats... Fat, Cats! Honestly, absolute stinker. I’m dying. Sums me up, doesn’t it?”
The image that accompanied his message did little to contradict him. Pale, drawn, and clearly struggling, he cut a very different figure to the one listeners are used to hearing sparring away on late-night radio.
“He is whiter than a ghost by the way!” Aherne observed after seeing the footage.
“He doesn’t look well, does he?” Agbonlahor admitted, the jokes giving way to sympathy. “I want to apologise for laughing at you Jamie.”
O’Hara has become a staple of The Sports Bar, where he and Jason Cundy have built a reputation for late-night chaos, sharp opinions and relentless wind-ups. With the new Premier League season edging closer, the pair are due back on air soon – but Cundy’s trademark mischief might be needed a little earlier than planned.
“Do you know what he might need while he’s sitting there in hospital?” Agbonlahor suggested. “Jason Cundy, ‘Has anyone seen cheese?!’ That’ll cheer him up!”
For now, O’Hara’s focus is on shaking off the illness and salvaging what he can of his holiday. The drip will come out, the colour should return, and the mic will be waiting.
Just don’t expect him to order cheese on toast again any time soon.
