“It just came from nothing.”
Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has revealed that he has terminal cancer.
Eriksson who is 75 told a Swedish radio station that he has “at best a year to live”.
Speaking to P1, Eriksson said: “Everyone understands that I have an illness that is not good. Everyone guesses it’s cancer and it is. But I have to fight as long as I can.”
“It is what it is” – Sven-Goran Eriksson
According to Sky News, when asked about the condition, Eriksson said he has “maybe at best a year, at worst a little less, or at best maybe even longer.”
“You can’t be absolutely sure,” he added. “It is better not to think about it.”
Eriksson said that he was running five kilometres the day before he went to hospital when he collapsed and fainted.
When doctors ran tests on him they found he had cancer. He said that “it just came from nothing” and left him “shocked”.
He said: “I’m not in any major pain. But I’ve been diagnosed with a disease that you can slow down but you cannot operate. So it is what it is.
“It’s better not to think about it. You have to trick your brain. I could go around thinking about that all the time and sit at home and be miserable and think I’m unlucky and so on.
“It’s easy to end up in that position. But no, see the positive sides of things and don’t bury yourself in setbacks, because this is the biggest setback of them all of course.”
Eriksson is perhaps best known for managing the England national side between 2001 and 2006 in what was deemed by many as the Golden Generation for English football with players including David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, and Frank Lampard, all at Eriksson’s disposal.
The Swede led the team during two World Cups and Euro 2004.
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