Lecce captain Marco Mancosu is battling for promotion from Serie B, but reveals he had surgery on March 26 to remove a tumour.
The 32-year-old forward had been at Lecce since 2016 and scored eight Serie B goals this season, along with nine assists.
He has two brothers who are also professional football players, Matteo in Serie B with Virtus Entella and Marcello for lower level Ghilarza Calcio.
Originally, the club had announced that Mancosu had an emergency appendectomy, but the player himself revealed via an Instagram post that this was a lie.
Lecce captain Marco Mancosu is battling for promotion from Serie B, but reveals he had surgery on March 26 to remove a tumour.
The 32-year-old forward had been at Lecce since 2016 and scored eight Serie B goals this season, along with nine assists.
He has two brothers who are also professional football players, Matteo in Serie B with Virtus Entella and Marcello for lower level Ghilarza Calcio.
Originally, the club had announced that Mancosu had an emergency appendectomy, but the player himself revealed via an Instagram post that this was a lie.
“I had an operation on March 26. For a tumour. I saw a world I never thought I’d know, I saw terror in the eyes of my loved ones, I saw the terror and concern of my wife who for the same reason lost her father this past summer, I was afraid of not being able to watch my daughter grow up, I had tests in the best Italian clinics, with people by my side who even now I don’t know if they survived.
“In that waiting room, it doesn’t matter if you are a lawyer, a player, a President or a normal worker. We are all the same, all dealing with something we cannot control.
“The medics told me my season was over and I had to think about next year. After two weeks I was back running on the training ground.
“After a month I was meant to go back to Milan to see if I needed chemotherapy or not, but I haven’t gone yet because I want to do what I love most in the world, playing football, then we’ll see at the end of the season. I have already won.”
Mancosu went on to apologise to those who he lied to about his condition, because he “didn’t feel ready. I had the operation on March 26 and from that day I am even prouder of myself and those who are by my side.”