Former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson said being diagnosed with terminal cancer came as a “shock” – but vowed to fight it and not “give up”.
The alternative, he said, is sitting alone at home — and although he and his family have accepted the inevitable, they deal with the news and talk every day.
The Swede was 75 years old Doctors told him he had pancreatic cancer and had “a year to live at best.”.
“At first it was very difficult to accept, but once you accept it, life goes on, and life must go on,” Eriksson told TalkTV on Friday.
He received the news after he collapsed and fainted after running 5km the day before. His children took him to the hospital and after four hours of tests, he was diagnosed.
“I felt absolutely fine. It was a very, very big surprise,” he said.
“When you get a message like that, it comes as a shock because I was completely fit, even in training. It came out of nowhere.”
He continued: “Of course you feel very bad…but you have to resist that, and that's what I'm trying to do at least.”
He said the cancer was inoperable, so he was now taking medication to slow its progress, but it had spread.
He added: “But it will happen sooner or later. Let's hope it will come later rather than sooner.”
Eriksson was in charge of the England men's national team for five years
Asked how his family was dealing with the news, he said: “We have to deal with it because the alternative is to give up and sit alone at home.
“So the whole family, the kids, of course have grown up – one lives in Spain, one lives in Stockholm – so they come whenever they can, and we talk every day.”
After being diagnosed with cancer, Eriksson revealed that he suffered “five strokes in one day – mini-strokes.”
The former Manchester City and Leicester manager told Swedish P1 Radio: “I'm not in any severe pain. But I've been diagnosed with a disease that you can slow down but you can't operate on. So that's the way it is.”
Between 2001 and 2006, Eriksson coached the so-called “golden generation” of footballers for the England men's national team including David BeckhamSteven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard.
He led England to three successive major tournament quarter-finals and was coach of one of their most famous results, a 5-1 win over Germany in Munich in September 2001.
Former England captain David Beckham with Eriksson before he left for Euro 2004
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His last coaching role was with the Philippines national team in the 2018-2019 season.
Eriksson resigned from his position as sporting director at Swedish football club Karlstad 11 months ago due to health problems.
He said he still watches an “incredible amount” of football and keeps in touch with Karlstad, who play in the third tier of the Swedish league system.
“Football was poison for me, good poison,” Eriksson said.
“My divorce several years ago was partly over football. My wife at the time wanted me to get a job where we could live more spontaneously and be free on some Saturdays or Sundays. But I couldn't imagine it.
“I would never change that decision [to make football my life] “If I had to live over again.”
