MICHAEL Carberry broke the news of his cancer diagnosis to his Hampshire teammates an hour before last night’s Natwest T20 Blast win against Glamorgan.

The former England batsman was given the shock news on Tuesday and was keen to ensure his teammates found out from him as they prepared for their south group match, which they won by 25 runs.

Hampshire director of cricket Giles White revealed: “The players found out an hour or so before the start.

“It was quite an emotional time for everyone so they did a great job to go out and perform in those circumstances.”

Carberry returned home to be with his family after breaking the news in the home dressing room.

“It’s been a very tough time for him in the last couple of days, it’s terrible news, we’re all shocked and our thoughts are with Carbs and his family,” continued White.

“Hopefully he gets through this and moves on. He’ll find out more on Tuesday but we need to respect Carbs’ privacy and we’ll stand by him all the way through and support him in any way we can.

“It’s a shock to him and to us. There’s not an awful lot more we can say, the whole club has been numbed by it and the crowd was also quite flat so the players’ response was fantastic.”

The cancerous tumour was diagnosed following a series of medical tests this week.

Carberry, 35, underwent the tests over concerns relating to a condition that causes blood clots to form on his lungs, which was first diagnosed in 2010.

Since then he has represented England in all formats of the game.  Carberry began his career with Surrey and then Kent before arriving at The Ageas Bowl in the autumn of 2005.

After excelling for Hampshire during the late noughties, he made his Test debut against Bangladesh in 2010 before playing throughout the Ashes series of 2013-14.

The dynamic, powerful left-handed opening batsman also played for England in both limited-overs formats in 2013-14.

Carberry is one of only seven batsmen to have made a triple century for Hampshire and is the only one to also have a T20 ton to his name. He is also one of only ten Hampshire batsmen to have made 150 in a one-day match.