Liverpool Echo: Ablett on discovering his illness

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.

It was the long walk that told Gary Ablett his life would change beyond comprehension. The walk that led him to the understanding that he might not have much life left at all.

It was taken along the corridors of Ipswich Hospital in July 2010.

The former Liverpool and Everton defender had just started a job as a coach at Ipswich Town, working for the manager Roy Keane.

He'd returned with the team from a pre-season friendly in Eindhoven feeling unwell. A few days later he realised he was in no fit condition to work on the training ground and called in sick. He felt guilty about it.

Ablett had developed "lumps like boils" on his head. He felt tired and lethargic but could not sleep. Then came retching and vomiting.

Wife Jacqueline heard enough over the telephone to rush to Suffolk from the family home in Cheshire. They arrived at the hospital together.

The account of what happened next comes from "The Game of My Life" Abblett's autobiography, which was completed shortly before his death from cancer. It is published by Sport Media at £16.99.

"We were told to report to one ward in particular and so, after we parked up, we started following the signs," Ablett recalled. "Dragging myself up the steps at the old Wembley Stadium to collect a loser's medal after Liverpool had lost The FA Cup final to Wimbledon back in 1988 had not been pleasant but that was a stroll in the park compared to what followed that afternoon.

"We walked down what seemed like a never ending corridor, seeing signs for all the different wards and units ... the ones you might spend the night on or, at worst, a couple of days. But we were walking on and becoming increasingly aware that, the deeper we went into the hospital, the more seriously ill patients appeared to be getting.

"With every step I was starting to come to my senses a little bit more, jolted out of my trance-like state by the growing fear and realisation of where this was headed. The increasingly frightened look on my wife's face served to shrug me awake as well.

"Eventually we arrived at oncology and the nurse took me into a little ward. There were about six beds in it and the patients, all male, were wired up to various machines. They were older than me, some of them considerably older. A few of them looked frail, gaunt and they had turned a yellowish colour."

The couple stood together, looking perplexed and feeling petrified.

"I've been told to come here but that's all," Ablett told the nurse. "I haven't been told anything other than that I'm having some further tests. What's going on?"

It was then, Ablett explained, that his world collapsed. The nurse said: "I am sorry to have to tell you this but we have found a really aggressive form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and if we don't treat it right now you could be in trouble."

Ablett described it as a 'life changing sentence uttered matter-of-factly'.

He went on: "It was like a manager reading out his starting XI at 1:30 on Saturday afternoon.

"Cancer.

"It is only now that I understand why she didn't dress it up with rather more sympathy. It's just part of her job; she has to remain detached from things, stay apart from those she is helping to treat.

"But for us it was as though our world had caved in. Devastating. The abruptness, the shock .... it felt as if I had been punched.

"Floored.

"Cancer.

"I went to pieces.

"Why me?

"How can this be happening to me?

"Ever since I fell ill the slightest thing has set me off but back then it just wasn't like me to cry. It's not a very 'football' way to react to things after all. But that day I wept buckets, with Jacqueline in floods of tears at my side."

Ablett dedicated the remaining months of his life to fighting the disease and writing "The Game of My Life" in conjunction with former Liverpool Post and ECHO football writer Paul Joyce.

He said: "There is nothing major in my career I wish I had done differently. Joining Everton (from Liverpool) was a controversial decision at the time and the stick I took was horrendous but it paid off for me. It is written down in the history books: Gary Ablett, the only player to claim FA Cup winners medals with both Liverpool and Everton."

Ablett, who was born in Liverpool in November 1965, joined the Anfield youth set-up as an apprentice in 1982 and made his first-team debut in December 1986. He scored his only Liverpool goal in a 3-0 home win over Nottingham Forest in 1987.

He made 147 senior appearances for Liverpool, winning two league championship medals and an FA Cup winner's medal (in 1989) before making a £750,000 move to Everton in June 1992.

Ablett won a second FA Cup winner's medal with Everton in 1995 during a spell spanning 156 games. He later played for Birmingham City between 1996 and 1999 and spent three months at Blackpool as a non-contract player in 2000.

He worked as a coach with both the Everton and Liverpool youth set-ups and was manager at Stockport County during the 2009-10 season.

Source: Liverpool Echo

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.