I’ll be made up if I can make it through to 50
COLE REVEALS HIS DAILY BATTLE TO BEAT DEMONS
ANDY COLE says he will be thankful to make it to 50 after opening up about his ongoing health battle.
Former Manchester United striker Cole has been selfisolating during the coronavirus pandemic and revealed the huge mental and physical toll that has taken.
“I try not to look too far ahead and take it day by day,” said Cole, 48, who had a lifesaving kidney transplant in 2017.
“I recently had one of my sombre days with my daughter, who has been unbelievable.
“She said to me ‘Dad, you’re going to live forever’. I’ll always remember that, because I kept saying to her ‘look, if I make 50, I’ll be happy’.
“I’m a year and a bit away from 50 and if I make it? Man, considering what I’ve been through, I’ll be made up.
“My biggest fear is that one day I wake up and my kidneys pack up. I’ve said to myself ‘if it packs up, how are you going to do it again, mentally? How are you going to go through it again?’ That’s my biggest fear.”
Cole revealed how his daily physical and psychological battles have been compounded by his need to shield during the Covid-19 crisis and subsequent lockdown.
“It’s been really, really hard,” he said. “Last week was one of my toughest. The week before I had my daughter here, who’s been shielding as well. “That was the first time I’d been able to socialise with someone for nine weeks, so that week made things a whole lot better for me. But this week, after she left, has been really tough.” Cole has launched the Andy Cole Fund, in conjunction with Kidney Research UK, to raise money for research into improving kidney transplants and patient wellbeing.
He has questioned the wisdom of Project Restart and said if he was still playing, he would not risk returning to competitive action while so many safety questions remain unanswered.
“I’ll be honest, I’m not quite sure why football’s coming back for 10 games,” said Cole. “If I was in this position now and still playing, I genuinely believe I couldn’t do it.
“You have all these numpties saying ‘what about all this money footballers are paid? Why are they so worried about playing?’ What they need to realise is that you can get paid all the money in the world, but if you lose your life, that’s it. All the money in the world can’t bring you back. “People need to start showing more compassion. There’s always a bigger picture.”
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