The most inspirational moments in sport don't always occur in the heat of battle, or in the immediate aftermath of glorious triumphs or heartbreaking defeats. Occasionally, they don't even happen on the sporting field.

On Tuesday, we witnessed one such moment, when one of football's least flamboyant, but most loved players delivered a message of hope, optimism, determination and courage in the face of adversity.

Jarryd Roughead is confronting the battle of his life, but he sat before the cameras to tell those who care about him not to worry. "I'm fine," he said, when asked how he was holding up.

"I'm not feeling down at the moment because I know what I have to do and I know it's going to be a bit of a battle for the next 12 months, but at the end of the day I'm still here. I'm still fine. I'm not going anywhere."

"Roughy" has faced physical challenges before, in the form of a torn Achilles and badly injured knee, and he intends dealing with this one the same unsentimental way – doing everything within his power to ensure a full recovery. "It's head down and bum up," is how he put it.

The cancer is a bad one, but the prognosis is positive and the treatment will not prevent him doing all the things he loves to do, aside from being part of Hawthorn's campaign for a fourth-straight premiership.

"I'm still just going to be the same old me," is how he put it.

Hawthorn had worried about how to treat one of its most valued players when a routine check revealed the return of the cancer that struck last year. But, as football operations manager Chris Fagan explained, it was Roughead who educated the club about what to do.

All they had to do was treat him the same as usual. Now Roughy has given the same message to the wider football world.

"Just seeing everyone smile towards me is more than enough, because there's no point feeling down for me," he said. "That's not going to make me feel better, that's not going to make you feel better. It's not going to make anyone feel better, so the sooner we're all positive toward this, the better."

In his own words, he also explained how he had been buoyed by the support of strangers. "It's not like a weekend, where you have to choose one side or the other. You know everyone is in my corner for this one, so when you've got 100 per cent backing it means a fair bit."

Roughhead is a redhead with fair skin. His exhortation to those facing similar battles is to be positive. His call to the rest to it have regular skin checks.

The calm reassurance was summed up in a response to the reporter who asked, with genuine concern, if this was the end of his playing career. "You can come to my first game back," he said, smiling. "There you go. How's that?"