'Hardman' Vinnie Jones diagnosed with skin cancer

Former football turned film star Vinnie Jones has come out and revealed that he has been diagnosed with skin cancer.

According to Sport24, the 48-year-old, who made his name in Britain as a tough-tackling midfielder for Wimbledon, said on Sunday he had been alerted to the illness by the discovery of a lump beneath his eye.

Jones said that cancer was a horrible word to hear and it frightened the life out of him, adding that he has faced the biggest and ugliest lads on the football field and been in some nasty bar brawls, but this was his toughest and scariest opponent yet.

Jones, whose acting career began when he appeared in the British gangster film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in 1998, said that he has had three operations to remove cancerous patches on his head.