Former Newcastle star Jonas Gutierrez launches £2m disability discrimination claim against club

Newcastle United are being sued for £2million by former player Jonas Gutierrez over the way he was treated after a year-long testicular cancer battle.

 

The Argentine left St James’ Park at the end of last season after the club chose not to offer him a new contract when his estimated £50,000-a-week deal expired.

 

That came after Gutierrez managed to find a way back into the first team following his fight against cancer.

 

Sportsmail understands he has made a claim under the 2010 Equality Act, which relates to discrimination against employees because of mental or physical disability.

 

The news comes months after Gutierrez claimed he would never be able to forgive Newcastle for the way he was treated, a thorny end to a seven-year stint in the North East.

 

'I won't be able to forgive the way I've been treated, no,' he said in March.

'I don't think it was the right time nor the circumstances and I think at times like that, you should look after the individual, the player.

 

'I was operated on in Argentina. They removed the testicle. The post-surgery studies were good and well, I went back to England after being discharged.

 

'I returned mid-November (2013) and at the beginning to mid-December the manager said I should find myself another club, that it was best. I understand a lot of things about football that, well, that for the directors it is a business, no?

 

'It is clear that they look after the club's interests, but I think in a situation like that, you need to save (consider) other things, even more as I had been playing for five years before having this problem. I was always playing.

 

'And I never asked for anything. I paid for it [medical treatment] because, for me, the most important thing was my health.'

 

Caretaker manager John Carver had to personally ring Gutierrez in May to inform the 32-year-old that the club would not be renewing his deal – days after he had completed a courageous comeback to score the winner since his emotional return against West Ham on the final day of the season.

 

Carver had been visibly delighted when Gutierrez found the net against the Hammers.

But Gutierrez was left seething after the manager rang Ryan Taylor to relay the same news before asking him to pass over the phone to the South American.