FA Cup final assistant referee Dan Robathan forced to retire after spinal tumours discovered

Dan Robathan, a Premier League and Fifa assistant referee who ran the line at the FA Cup final between Crystal Palace and Manchester City in May 2025, has been forced to medically retire after the discovery and treatment of two benign tumours in his spine, the referee said this week.

Robathan began refereeing at 10 years old and worked his way up to officiate more than 200 Premier League matches and World Cup qualifiers; speaking at the time of the FA Cup final he called it "a privilege to stand there on behalf of over 37,000 referees across the country" and the FA describes Fifa match officials as the "pinnacle of the officiating ladder".

He first attributed symptoms to sciatic nerve pain and wear and tear before a neurosurgeon told him he had two tumours. "I saw a neurosurgeon who told me I had two tumours, initially I thought it was one, but it was two," he told BBC Newsbeat, adding: "It was compressing nerves, there was a chance it could affect a motor nerve which means it could affect function in my leg."

Robathan said the diagnosis forced immediate changes to his daily life. "I needed to go home, lay down and not move. I did that for 15 days, my life turned upside down overnight," he said, and BBC Newsbeat met him at a football pitch in Norwich, close to where he lives, to discuss the impact on his fitness and mobility.

Surgeons removed one tumour and left the other in place after deeming it safe; both were non-cancerous but Robathan described the post-operation recovery as "brutal." He said by Christmas 2025 he remained fatigued and struggled to "lift my heel, walk, or feel my calf," and recalled the surgeon saying he had "under a 10% chance of ever getting back on the field."

Despite fighting "like mad" to regain fitness, Robathan said he could not return to elite officiating and that "the decision was made for me" when he was forced to retire. The 38-year-old said he still experiences days when he struggles to walk or his back feels "on fire": "My body just can't do what I want it to do."

Robathan has undergone testing to confirm the tumours were not genetic, a result he described as reassuring but that still leaves uncertainty. He reflected on the personal impact: "It's a loss of identity. I've been 'Dan the ref' since I was 10 years old. "It's 28 years of being who I am, it's my personality."

He said he is weighing options about his future and the effect on his mental health, joking "I feel like a 16-year-old who's just left school and trying to work out what I want to do with my life," and adding, "[But] I don't know if I will be able to with the mental health problems I've had."

Robathan said family and advocacy will be priorities and that he wants to use his experience to encourage men to speak up about health issues: "I want to put my son, fiancée, my stepchildren first. I want to try and advocate for men's mental health, for men speaking about health issues. "If I can help one or two men in the process, I've done my job." He also said that any return to football would need to be for the right reasons: "I need to get that fire my belly."

Dan Robathan is now working with a psychologist to decide the path forward.