SERGIO AGUERO has spoken for the first time in detail about the moment he began to feel unwell in his last professional game.
The 33-year-old has also confessed he suffered an irregular heartbeat BEFORE his final match but was given the all-clear to carry on playing after tests.
2
2
Manchester City legend Aguero said in a radio interview in Argentina: “My body had already warned me something was happening.
“Ten days before what happened I had suffered a very short arrhythmia during a training session and it seemed like everything was okay after checks, but then it occurred in the match. It wasn’t something I was expecting.”
He added, speaking for the first time in detail about the discomfort he felt during the October 30 match against Alaves which was only his fifth in a Barcelona shirt: “I began to feel a lot of heat in my body during the game, about five minutes before.
“I thought it was because of the match and because it was the first time I had started a game for a while.
“There was a moment when I began to feel weak and feel like I was dizzy, and I jumped to head the ball and felt even dizzier.
“That’s when I took hold of an Alaves defender’s hand and said to him, ‘Listen, I’m feeling dizzy, stop the game.’
“He began to shout, the ref looked at me, saw I was clutching my chest, I felt I was drowning, and he stopped the match and the doctor rushed onto the pitch and when I fell on the ground the attack began. That’s why I stayed down for a while.”
Aguero, who announced his retirement in a tearful Nou Camp press conference in December because of his heart problems, also confirmed in the same interview on Radio 10 he will be going to the 2022 World Cup with Argentina.
He did not rule out the possibility he would end up joining the coaching staff on Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni’s World Cup team.
But he hinted the prestigious tournament could have come a year too early for him to consider an official post.
Aguero said: “I’m going to go to the World Cup. We’re looking at the possibility of a meeting this week.
“I want to go and if I go I’m going to be with the lads and I’m going to go to the training sessions.
“That won’t be a problem but the truth is that I’m not sure about the idea of being cooped up again for so long because I’ve been to the World Cup as a player but never as a spectator.”
Confirming he had talked with both Scaloni and Argentine Football Association president Claudio Tapia, Aguero said: “I don’t think Scaloni is going to be upset if I say I’ve spoken with him. He called me, the lads as well and Chiqui Tapia.
“We’re seeing if we can turn something around and what we could do. The thing is it’s all very recent and it’s a shame that this World Cup is just round the corner.
“If there was longer we could organise a formal process to plan things. But I’ll be going to Qatar to cheer the players on even if it ends up being no more than that.”
Aguero was said to have received four job offers after he announced he was quitting professional football following a short holiday in Dubai with girlfriend Sofia Calzetti.
One was reportedly an ambassadorial role at Man City where he became the club’s record goalscorer during his ten years in the Premier League.
A role on Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni’s coaching team for the World Cup was also described as an option, as well a position with one of the country’s national youth teams.
Earlier this month Aguero lifted up his top during a Twitch transmission to show fans the microchip implant he had put in him during a cardiac catheterisation at a hospital in Barcelona following his last professional game.
He went on to joke that he lit up in colours at night like Iron Man: “I reckon my girlfriend put the chip in to see where I am.”
Aguero admitted in his radio interview on Friday he cried after being told by doctors following the surgery that they didn’t think he could play again.
He said: “The first 15 days were quite hard. I tried not to watch any matches. And still today, although from time to time I watch out of the corner of my eye.
“I look at matches but it’s not like before when I’d see games all the time.”