Alan Brazil has made his return to talkSPORT after a four-month absence, following a life-saving liver transplant. The veteran broadcaster shared a fresh update on his recovery after being off air for almost four months due to serious health complications.
Return to the Breakfast programme
Brazil made his comeback on the station's Breakfast programme on Wednesday, August 5, alongside former Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor. Scotland legend Ally McCoist remains on a 'well-deserved' break after his stint as an ITV co-commentator at the World Cup.
Discussing his condition ahead of his return, Brazil said: "I am not going to bore everyone but it is remarkable really what happened. One minute I am doing this (the show), I've finished at 9:45am, there's a car outside and I am like 'what's going on?' Straight down to Addenbrooke's Hospital and a few hours later... wallop."
Details of the surgery
Brazil revealed that he spent eight hours in the operating theatre and that his heart briefly stopped during the operation. He said: "They open me up and stick a new liver in there. So I did have cancer in my liver and we suspected that for months to be honest, but they didn't want to go in and touch it and shake it up in case you could make it spread. First of all they said the perfect match came in, otherwise I might still be waiting and people will know what I am talking about who might be on the list."
He added: "You can wait 18 months, you can go down there, get ready to have the op and they say 'it's not quite right, go away and come back and we will phone you later, maybe in a few weeks' and it can be murder. I was so lucky, I went down there and they said 'we've got one and it looks perfect so we are going to do it now'."
Complications and gratitude
Brazil described the ordeal: "They inject you all over and you have to sign a few forms, you get carried in there and it's like 'goodbye everyone', that's how bad it was. I thought 'see you later'. Wife's in tears, it was horrible."
He continued: "That was the stage where I had to get it done otherwise it was 'see you later'. I didn't realise it was that extreme but it was. They told me, another couple of weeks and you were gone. I had seven or eight hours on there, the fluid build-up I had was horrendous."
"They cut me open and there was a flood, it was that bad everywhere I had it. I did have a few complications, my heart stopped for 40 seconds. I said 'did you get the old jump-leads on?' He said 'no, no. It came back. We were about to take action but it came back'."
The former Ipswich and Tottenham midfielder has described his surgery and recovery as 'a miracle', lauding the 'brilliant' team at Addenbrooke's in Cambridge for saving his life. "I can't thank the people at Cambridge enough," he said.
He also revealed that he is presently on "massive medication," adding: "I am on these pills and my resistance levels are not good, so they said I have to stay out of the sun."
