Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has revealed he has been diagnosed with cancer and says he has “best case a year” to live.
Swede Eriksson was the first foreign coach to lead the Three Lions, taking them to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and Euro 2004.
The 75-year-old stood down from his most recent role as sporting director at Karlstad 11 months ago and said he had been given the diagnosis after fainting while out for a run.
He told Swedish radio station P1: “Everyone can see that I have a disease that’s not good, and everyone supposes that it’s cancer, and it is. But I have to fight it as long as possible.
“I know that in the best case it’s about a year, in the worst case even less. Or in the best case I suppose even longer. I don’t think the doctors I have can be totally sure, they can’t put a day on it.
“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.
“It just came from nothing. And that makes you shocked.
“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.”
Eriksson won 40 of his 67 games in charge of England‘s golden generation of the 2000s and won honours as a club manager with Benfica, Roma, Sampdoria and Lazio, most notably winning the Serie A title with I Biancocelesti in 1999/00.
After leaving his role with the Three Lions after the 2006 World Cup, the former defender would go on to have managerial stints with Manchester City, Mexico, Ivory Coast and Leicester City among others.
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