Illness discovered by chance: «I was completely healthy, then I collapsed, fainted and ended up in hospital. After a medical consultation I discovered that I had had a stroke and that I already had a tumor. I don’t know how long, maybe a month, maybe a year. It turned out I had cancer but I had run five kilometers the day before. It came out of nowhere, and that shocks you. I don’t feel much pain. But I was diagnosed with a disease that you can slow down but can’t operate on. So it is what it is.”
Shocking statement from Sven-Goran Eriksson, first step back almost a year ago, in February, the former coach of Lazio, Roma and the English national team, left football for “health reasons”. Today the revelation: “I have terminal cancer, I can slow it down but not operate on it. I have a year left to live.” The Swede, the last person to win a Scudetto with Lazio, is 75 years old, with a life dedicated to football. “Everyone understood that I wasn’t well, they imagined it was cancer and it is. I have to fight as long as I can,” Eriksson explained.
The prognosis leaves little room for hope: “At best I have a year left, at worst even less. In reality, no one can be sure, it’s best not to think about it. You can somehow trick your brain, think positively and see things in the best way, not get lost in adversity, because this is obviously the greatest of all, but still get something good out of this experience.”