Eric Abidal: “I asked the doctors to put me into an induced coma”

Barca defender Eric Abidal gave an interview to French TV channel TF1 last Sunday in which he explained the worst moments of his illness. “I asked the doctors to put me into a medically induced coma,” he said.

The French defender, who on April 10th, 2012 underwent a liver transplant, reappeared in the Camp Nou against Mallorca on 6^th April, almost a year later.

The road wasn’t an easy one. “I have suffered a lot,” Eric Abidal admitted on French television. “We talked about a transplant, but in fact, I had four or five operations in a very short period of time. I lost 19 kilos. I never thought about death because I know that it is God who decides. I’ve suffered”.

Abidal concluded by saying: “I remember one Sunday I could not bear the pain and I asked the doctors if they could put me into an induced coma. After the fourth operation, these same doctors told me I had a lot of fluid in the belly and wondered how I could stand the pain.”

As far as the Barca fans are concerned, Eric Abidal is a symbol of Barca and everything the club stands for. It takes great courage to come back from what Abidal has gone through and many people thought that he’d never be playing on the pitch again. He’s proved so many people wrong with his guts and determination.