A football legend and World Cup winner has shared that he has been battling illness for the last 15 years and has been taking medicine to manage it for a decade and a half
Italy legend Gennaro Gattuso has shared that he has been battling illness for the last 15 years. The 48-year-old opened up about his health battle which forced his retirement from football in 2013.
The former midfielder won the World Cup in 2006 and is a club legend at AC Milan having spent 13 years at San Siro. The Lazio boss spoke about an autoimmune disease he has been battling, but he did not specify the illness, which he says has left sufferers bed bound for months.
Speaking at the Festival dello Sport event in Trento at the weekend, Gattuso said: “I stopped playing because of the autoimmune disease I got. I’ve been taking cortisone for 15 years now.
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“There are people with my illness who stay in bed for four or five months at a time, because they cannot move.
“I accepted this illness, I work on it, but it costs me, as taking cortisone every day is not easy. It has been six or seven years since I drank any kind of alcohol. I keep going as long as God gives me the strength.”
Gattuso battled the condition during the latter years of his playing career, and eventually forced his retirement in 2013 at Sion, one year after leaving Milan.
The midfielder started his career at Perugia before spending one season at Rangers in 1997/98, he returned to Italy with Salernitana but just one year later he joined Milan.
He went on to win two Serie A titles, the Coppa Italia, two Champions Leagues, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup during his time at San Siro, playing a total of 468 games.
Following retirement, Gattuso has managed 10 clubs, as well as the Italian national team. He returned to Milan in 2017 as boss but left at the end of the 2018/19 season and lifted the Coppa Italia with Napoli the following season.
Gattuso has also taken charge of Valencia, Marseille, Hajduk Split and the Italian national team, but he was unable to guide the Azzurri to their first World Cup since 2010, losing on penalties to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the play-off final.