And as he battles serious health is his ultimate secret weapon

Fund, in conjunction with Kidney Research UK, to raise money for research into improving kidney transplants and patient well-being.

Three million people in the UK have kidney disease and 36 per cent of people on the kidney donor waiting list are from a BAME background.

He questions the wisdom of Project Restart and said if he was still playing, he would not risk returning to competitive action while so many questions remain unanswered.

“I’ll be honest, I’m not sure why football’s coming back for 10 games,” said Cole, speaking from his London home where he has been shielding during the coronavirus pandemic.

“People say the players have had a rest, but they haven’t, because mentally they’ve been as worried as everybody else. They worry about their families, they worry about themselves, so it’s tough on the players as well and that’s what people need to understand.

“We’re all human, so while everyone else worries about this pandemic, that’s exactly how players are going to be feeling.

“I’ve got to be honest, if I was in this position now and still playing, I genuinely believe I couldn’t do it.

“If I felt uncomfortable about playing, like a lot do, why are you going to go back if you’re not comfortable in your surroundings?

“You’ve got to ask yourself the question: they’ve all gone back to training, but you’ve still got to go through all these stringent tests.

“You talk about shielding, you’ve got to do this and that, so if you’ve got to do all of this to play football, what does that actually tell you? That tells you something’s not right.

“I’ve got all the empathy in the world for players like Troy Deeney and I understand where he’s coming from, having a newborn with the pandemic we’re in and the fact we in the BAME community find ourselves more susceptible to this virus.

“Then you have all these numpties saying, ‘What about all this money footballers are paid? Why are they worried about playing?’

“What they need to realise is that you can get paid all the money in the world, but if you lose your life, that’s it. All the money in the world can’t bring you back.

“People need to start showing more compassion and thinking with their brains. There’s always a bigger picture.”