Sven-Goran Eriksson 'has at best a year to live' as he confirms cancer diagnosis

Sven-Goran Eriksson has confirmed he has been diagnosed with cancer after announcing he was stepping back from football in 2023 to "focus on my health and family".

The 75 year old football manager, who managed England men's team from 2001 until 2006, shared the sad news on Thursday, 11 January in an interview on Sweden's P1 radio station, revealing he has "at best a year to live". "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," Sven-Goran told the radio station. When asked about his prognosis, the former footballer sadly said: “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." He said he has to "fight as long as possible", and added: “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.” Sven-Goran stepped away from football in 2023 due to unspecified health concerns. At the time, he said he would be leaving football to "focus on my health and family".

The 75 year old explained that he suddenly collapsed and was rushed to hospital, despite only the day before heading out on a 5km run.

He was then diagnosed with cancer. “I was fully healthy and then I collapsed and fainted and ended up at the hospital. And it turned out that I had cancer.

The day before I had been out running five kilometres.

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," he said. Sven-Goran is best known for managing the England men's squad from 2001 until 2006.