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"Abidal's feelings"
I don't do things to set an example
or to be considered one
I do what I have to do
we are lucky, as football players,
to mean something for a lot of people
so when we go to see kids in hospitals
we talked to them and give them strenght
we give them a bit of optimism
that same speech should help me when I was
in their situation
so I thought, if I gave them strenght through my words,
the same speech should be good form me,
otherwise I wouldn't be speaking them
the truth
"A letter to 'La Vanguardia' newspaper,
January 15th, 2012"
"'You have, in your head, the same thing that
Abidal had in his liver, and doctors
will remove it tomorrow',
that's the only thing I was capable of
saying to my 15 year old son"
After five months of surgeries,
some Barça players visited my son at
the hospital, and Eric Abidal came in
to his room and said:
"Brother, I am here to cheer you up.
I am fighting this disease too"
(J. García Sierra)
That was an important thing to me,
something that came up suddenly
like when me and Gerard gave a watch to this kid in the hospital, I did that
because I knew that gesture could help him,
could give him more strenght to fight
I don't care about the watch,
I just gave it to him to help him.
"Abidal and his wife shared
lots of hours and days with other people
at the hospital.
Our daugther, Sandra, is no longer
among us, but Eric won't forget
her smile and her willgness to fight".
The truth is, this was done more by
my wife, as I was at my room all the time,
and she used to go for walks,
one day she met Sandra in the hall way,
and they started to chat, Sandra would tell
her story to my wife, and she would
tell Sandra about me,
they had a good connection
we thought it would be nice to tell
about Sandra on Facebook,
she was very brave, always hiding her
suffering and cheering her parents up
we shared the same mentality.
When you get in the OR, you don't know
what's going to happen to you
and family comes to mind as
the most important thing of all
I thought a lot of them,
I wasn't scared, I trusted the surgeons
but I also thought that
I needed to be strong for them
I have fought to be strong
Over the 42 days I was in the hospital,
I only saw my kids three days,
as I didn't want them to visit the hospital
but those three days helped me a lot,
as kids are stronger than adults,
so I was worried of giving them
a good impression, and not to worry them.
"La Marató (Charity for cancer research)
December 2012"
You have to try, if you don't
you won't know if you would be able
to do something or not
so that is why I was saying
a few days ago,
that I really wanted to come back to work
with my team mates
but if I don't start doing so
I won't know if I can take it
so I wanted this, let me try if
I can take this, if I don't try
I won't know
No matter what job you have
you need to fight for it
and let people help you,
when difficult times arrive
and if you have health problems, even more
as you need the support, and the
strenght that others can give you
I have been blessed in that sense
It is not easy to share time
with so many football stars
as I think all my team mates are
I see Leo as the most humble player
in the world
I see Pinto's endless smile,
Valdés's jokes
and lots of other things,
like the energy and spirit of our 'capi',
Xavi's practical jokes
the well behaved Iniesta, who doesn't speak much
Each one of them has something to give
to the group, and I try to
learn something from them,
to be a better person.
"A team of friends"
That was something nice to see
I was in the hospital that day,
but I was with them in soul
I thank them for remembering me that day
that made me remember
I am part of this team.
That was at home
When I arrived here I noticed
that relationships among the players
are very different to what I knew in France
sharing time with the team mates
make a better and more united dressing room
in other places, you can play ten years
with another player, and after that,
still don't know him
or what he thinks of you, or what he likes
so we share lots of things when we
get together, in dinners, lunches, etc,
those are chances to learn about them
I think all this helps the team spirit
covering for each other in the field,
with that level of friendship
we get stronger as a team.
'Is there something you would like to say
that I didn't ask?'
Yes,
I would like to send a huge hug and say thank you to my cousin Gerard.
'How is he?'
He is doing ok, much better than me,
I might not have been here talking to you
if it wasn't for him.
You forgot to ask me that!