It has been revealed that the physio who managed to get Luis Suarez from wheelchair to match-winner in less than a month was being treated for cancer at the same time.
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Suarez had surgery on meniscus damage in his knee on May 22, and four weeks to the day he miraculously returned to score both Uruguay's goals in their 2-1 win over England on Thursday.
The striker ran straight over to the bench to celebrate with Walter Ferreira after scoring his for goal, and now the sacrifices the physio made to help the player have come to light.
Ferreira, 62, was in the final stages of chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer when he began working with Suarez, with his final course completed three weeks ago before doctors gave him permission to fly out to Brazil with the Uruguay squad.
"There are people who know how crucial it was for me to have their support. If it wasn't for him [Ferreira] I would not have been here today," Suarez said in a video message posted on YouTube. "I cried a lot with him, because it was such a hard time, and complicated because of what he was living through as well, he made a sacrifice to remain with me the whole time.
"While my wife and my two sons are the most important things in the world to me, now this man is too, because of everything he did to aid my recovery, because 90 per cent of this is the work of Walter Ferreira."
Now Ferreira, who has been given the all-clear but still has a low white blood cell count, is being treated as a superstar back in his homeland.
"He [Suarez] deserves it, he worked hard to be here today. I couldn't go to the [training] resort, so he would come to my house. He gave it all, his wife, his family, I'm truly grateful," Ferreira told Uruguayan radio station Pasion Tricolor.
"I have no words, life has some ups and downs but you have to keep fighting. I'm very grateful. I'm going to keep fighting."
Ferreira went on to add that he was grateful to the Uruguay management for having faith in his abilities as a physio, and thanked everyone for their support.