Footballers are expected to give everything to help their teammates on the pitch.
But Dani Alves was prepared to go the extra mile for Eric Abidal when the Frenchman was diagnosed with cancer in 2011.
Despite being given the all-clear before Barcelona’s Champions League victory over Manchester United at Wembley, a check-up showed that the disease had returned, with Abidal requiring a life-saving liver transplant.
It was at that moment that Alves put himself forward to help his friend.
“My Barcelona team-mate Dani Alves offered me his liver. He was serious but I could never have accepted it,” revealed Abidal. “He also has a family and a career. It is a massive operation and it was too much.”
Abidal wouldn’t allow the Brazilian to put his own career in jeopardy, but fortunately his cousin Gerard was a match.
“The risk for Gerard was huge. He saved my life. It is as simple as that.”
Abidal recalls fighting the disease in an interview with the Daily Mail, explaining that he didn’t allow his teammates to see him during his gruelling battle.
“For seven months, I didn’t do anything. I had no strength. It was draining. No sport, no training,” he said. “There were dark days – I was terrified that I would never be able to play again. I would wake up and barely have the strength to move a muscle.
“I didn’t let the Barca players come to the hospital. I didn’t want people to see me like that.”
After another 13 months of treatment, Abidal eventually returned to football, playing a full season with Monaco in Ligue 1 before finishing his career at Olympiacos.
Now retired, Abidal laughed off the possibility of returning to the game, but expressed his delight in bowing out of the sport his way, and not being forced out of it because of illness.
“For me, the important thing was that I was able to go on my terms — I made the decision, the cancer did not make it for me,” he said.
“Cancer has changed my life. I am a better person. I prioritise what is important: my wife, my little girls, my friends, travelling with the family. I just want to enjoy every second.”
