Dad will always be in my thoughts and I will miss him badly

Briefly losing the ability to fight for his place in the Cherries starting line-up was nothing compared with the grief of losing his father to cancer.   

John Daniels passed away in February having been diagnosed the previous summer.  

“It was during the close season in 2018,” Charlie told afcb.co.uk. “My dad told me he had cancer and said it didn’t look good for him.

“It was devastating. At the time, my brother Jack was travelling and I told dad that I would arrange to meet him so I could tell him.

“We met in Los Angeles and I was fortunate I had my wife with me because it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.

“Watching dad go through his treatment was really tough. It was awful to see him deteriorate the way he did and everything he had to go through.

“I kept playing and that was hard. From October onwards, I went up and back to London to see him as often as I could.

“Around Christmas, he was very poorly and it wasn’t nice to see him like that. My brother was at home then and he saw dad every day and was always with him.

“I can’t speak highly enough of my brother and stepmum for what they did in terms of looking after dad and making him as comfortable as possible.

“They helped so much and made him feel at ease and at peace as well. What they did for him was probably more than I could ever have done.

“It’s definitely been the toughest 12 months of my career so far. Dad will always be in my thoughts and I will miss him badly.

“Alongside my coaches, he was the biggest influence on me growing up. He didn’t play football, he was in the Army. When I was learning football, he was learning it as well. I played, he watched and together we learned and understood everything about the game.

“Now he’s gone, it’s the little things you think of. Every time I went for a walk before a game, I would call him. It’s those moments you really think how precious life is.

“You always want to do your family proud and my dad did a good job with me and my brother by instilling the right ethic, attitude and drive, especially towards work. Now it’s my job to pass that on to my kids.”

A keen follower of his local club Leyton Orient – the team he left to join the Cherries in November 2011 – Daniels was also caught up in the emotion at Brisbane Road during the summer.

Just weeks after guiding the East Londoners to promotion back to the Football League, manager Justin Edinburgh died, aged 49, after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Ross Embleton, Edinburgh’s assistant and now interim head coach at Orient, had a spell working at the Cherries academy and is a close friend of Daniels, Ross’s father Steve having coached him as a junior at Brisbane Road.

Daniels added: “When my dad was ill, I popped in to see Ross to say hello and to see how they were doing because they were on the verge of getting promoted. I wanted to wish them well.

“I met Justin and we had a good chat about everything, how the season was going, how he was enjoying it, his vision and taking the team back to the Football League.

“Hearing what happened was a huge shock and the whole club was devastated. His name will live long in the memory of Leyton Orient and its supporters.”

Another Orient favourite Martin Ling, the man Daniels credits with putting him on the road to the Premier League, has become a major advocate of mental health awareness having had his own struggles in the past.

“Martin gave me probably the biggest step in my career,” said Daniels. “Him and his assistant Dean Smith, who is now manager at Aston Villa, gave me my start in football after I had left Spurs.

“They signed me and I was totally grateful. Martin is a total football man and helped me a lot and you can see from the way Aston Villa play that Dean is the same.

“At Orient, we always tried to entertain. It didn’t always work but we tried and it really gave me a proper insight into professional football and how I wanted to progress.”

Having sustained an injury to his kneecap in training in April, it was a coincidence that Daniels would return for the Cherries against Smith’s Villa during Saturday’s 2-1 win at Villa Park.

Now in his ninth season at the club, Daniels, a bargain £175,000 buy from Orient, turns 33 next month and was the oldest player in the Cherries starting line-up by more than four years.

He said: “I never think of myself as a 32-year-old, I always think of myself as younger and am still trying to improve.

“I’m still trying to do what I always have and play the way I want to play and the way the gaffer and this club wants to play.

“To be honest, I haven’t really thought too much about the future. I just focus on playing and don’t think I’m anywhere near ready to retire at the moment.

“I’m definitely going to take my UEFA A licence next year, I’ve already got my B licence. I feel good, I feel healthy and it’s nice to be able to do your badges alongside playing.

“There is a totally different way of thinking between players and coaches. If you can tap in to what the coaches want you to do then it makes you a better player and you understand things tactically.

“My main aim is to get fit, stay fit and then to play as much as I can. I’m 32 turning 33 and need to play as much as I can.

“Being a professional footballer, I’m in such a privileged position. I think a lot of people take it for granted in terms of what they actually do for work if you compare it to other people.

“It is a privileged job but it is one you need to work hard at every day to try to improve yourself. If you don’t, you will soon get found out and can lose your job very quickly. I don’t plan on that happening to me anytime soon.”

Main picture: Charlie, his father John and brother Jack after the Cherries had won the Championship at Charlton in May 2015