Mihajlovic and leukemia: “I told her let’s fight, let’s see who wins”

Sinisa Mihajlovic will have to stop again. To heal. But he himself taught that stopping does not mean giving up, that the battle must be faced head on. The Bologna coach has talked about his illness several times in recent years. These are the words of him collected by Marco Pasotto at the last Trento Sport Festival, in the event called “The match of life”, which is also the title of the autobiography written with the deputy director of the Gazzetta Andrea Di Caro.

The match of life. Which this time is not the most important challenge on the pitch. Life, in this case, is about to survive and then about to be born a second time. “The match of life” is the title of the event in which Sinisa Mihajlovic took part today as part of the Sport Festival, organized in Trento by Gazzetta dello Sport. An intertwining of football, emotions, slaps of fate and courage. A full life, that of Sinisa, who did not miss anything since he was a child between wars, relatives who became enemies, dangerous friends, until the hardest test with leukemia that she tried to knock him out, without succeeding. Mihajlovic clung with all his strength to the family and also to the ball to get out of the tunnel. To stay alive. “There was a period in my life when I forgot to cry. Then I cried often, now I’m in a middle ground”, says the Bologna coach, who takes the audience on a roller coaster between jokes – has times perfect comedians, Sinisa – and serious moments.

The illness

–

“I lived it as I am, I’m not a hero. There are people who are ashamed and hiding from the disease and it is not fair. I have communicated it because there is nothing to be ashamed of, I have cried many times and I have discovered that it is right to do so. When I showed up on the bench in Verona I weighed 15 kilos less than today, I was more dead than alive, but I went there to make everyone understand that I was fighting and wanted to live normally. When I saw myself on TV I didn’t recognize myself but it wasn’t an image of weakness, but of strength. I told the disease ‘now let’s fight and see who wins’. If it has happened to me that I am very big and trained, it can happen to anyone. And then you understand how important it is to control yourself. Get blood tests every six months. There were times when I was training with a fever of 40, I was in pain and maybe they gave me a shot of morphine before starting the training. After more than a month closed in the hospital I wanted to go back to the field, but the white blood cells did not allow it. The doctor understood and left me the same: if I had stayed in the hospital I would have died “.