Jamie O’Hara's Food Poisoning Nightmare in Portugal

Jamie O’Hara headed to Portugal for the usual reasons – sun, sea and a bit of mid-summer escape. Instead, the former Tottenham midfielder has ended up under hospital lights in Albufeira, floored by a bout of food poisoning he insists came from something as harmless as cheese on toast.

The talkSPORT presenter revealed his misfortune on Instagram on Wednesday night, posting a photo from a hospital bed with a drip in his right arm and a caption that raised as many eyebrows as it did concern.

“Got food poisoning from cheese on toast in Albufeira,” he wrote.

That claim alone was enough to set off a debate back home. On the Breakfast show, Shebahn Aherne and Gabby Agbonlahor tried to make sense of how a comfort-food classic could do that much damage.

“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 one to miss a punchline, went for the comedy angle. He joked that O’Hara had taken his own cheese out to Portugal, let it go off, eaten it and paid the price.

The pair then tried to get a bit more scientific. Aherne floated the idea of listeriosis, pointing out NHS guidance that soft, mould-ripened cheeses like camembert and brie can cause sickness. Whatever the cause, the end result for O’Hara was the same: a wrecked holiday and a stint in hospital.

O’Hara himself checked in with the show via video, his voice and face telling their own story.

“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 the clip did little to contradict him. Aherne’s verdict was blunt: “He is whiter than a ghost by the way!”

“He doesn’t look well, does he?” Agbonlahor added, the laughter giving way to sympathy. “I want to apologise for laughing at you Jamie.”

Back in London, thoughts quickly turned to how to lift his spirits. O’Hara is a central figure on The Sports Bar, where he and Jason Cundy have built a reputation for late-night chaos, wind-ups and the sort of running jokes that listeners feel they own.

With their return pencilled in for the new Premier League season, Cundy’s role as chief mischief-maker might be required a little earlier than planned. Agbonlahor suggested the perfect tonic for a man laid up in a foreign hospital bed.

“Do you know what he might need while he’s sitting there in hospital?” he asked. “Jason Cundy, ‘Has anyone seen cheese?!’ That’ll cheer him up!”

For now, O’Hara’s job is simple: recover, salvage what he can of his Algarve break and get back behind the microphone. The Premier League will be back soon enough, and so will The Sports Bar. Whether cheese on toast ever features on his pre-show menu again is another matter entirely.