2024-04-13 13:43:19
Former footballer Joe Thompson has to cope with a severe blow of fate. The former United talent has been diagnosed with cancer for the third time.
Sad news from England: Ex-footballer Joe Thompson is suffering from cancer. This is reported by the British BBC. Thompson has stage four lymphoma. This is also said to be attacking his lungs. He had already been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2013. Thompson beat cancer before it returned in 2017 and subsequently overcame the disease once again. Now he has to face her a third time.
The cancer “came back very aggressively,” Thompson told the BBC. The fact that the lungs are now also being attacked is particularly troubling for him because “breathing is a problem, sleeping is difficult and even speaking can sometimes be quite difficult.”
But he doesn’t want to give up. “The fight is definitely still within me, nothing changes,” said the 35-year-old, who admitted, however, how much the new diagnosis affects him. “It really hurts when you face it for the third time because you know what you have to go through.” Then he added: “The problem with a third diagnosis is that it’s like the Grim Reaper saying: Here I am again. Then you start thinking about all the feelings.”
Youth in Manchester – career highlight in the 3rd league
Thompson played in the youth team of English top team Manchester United from 1998 to 2005 before moving on to today’s fifth division club AFC Rochdale. The midfielder also made his breakthrough there. Between 2006 and 2012 he scored 15 goals in 143 appearances for the club. He then played for a few more teams, including a loan break to Rochdale in 2013 (seven games), before finally returning to his old place of work in 2016 and ending his career there in 2019 after 32 more games and four goals.
He probably experienced his greatest moment in 2018. On the last matchday of League One, England’s third highest division, Thompson scored the celebrated winning goal against Charlton Athletic after 69 minutes. In doing so, he saved his team from relegation to the fourth division.
After his career, Thompson worked primarily as a television pundit and as a motivational speaker.