After retiring as a player, Jenkins forged a new career as a coach, eventually becoming assistant manager at St Mirren – but that too was cut short.
Jenkins said at that point his “body started to crumble.”
He said: “It came out that I’d left St Mirren for personal reasons.
“To this date that’s what people thought, but I left because I wasn’t physically able.
“So I’ve had two careers, two professions basically, taken away from me.”
The 53-year-old, who still lives in Dundee, now works as a surveyor.
He said he still suffers from chronic pain as a result of the rogue surgeon’s operation.
Jenkins is among dozens of patients believed to have been left with life-changing injuries by Eljamel, but until recently the former player thought he had just been unlucky.
He said: “I was just sat watching the TV one evening and his face appeared.
“(I thought) I know him – that’s the boy who operated on my spine.
“And then I hit a few stories that were connected to why he was appearing on my TV screen, he had botched other operations up.”