He has seen death with his eyes, but has no recollection of the terrible past experience, starting with the month in intensive care. Alberto Zaccheroni recounts his drama for the first time. In a’truth interview with Corriere della Sera the former coach, among others, of Milan, Inter and Juventus he confesses. That cursed February 10, in his Cesenaticorisked dying from a head injury sustained by falling down the stairs of his home.
Head trauma, the dramatic story of Zaccheroni
The tale of ‘Zac’ begins like this: “I don’t remember anything, I only know what my wife who was with me at home told me Cesenatico. She was on the ground floor, I was probably going down the stairs and slipped. I tumbled eight to ten steps. She ran because she heard my screams. I had hit my head, you can imagine her fright” of her. Perhaps a maneuver to protect his son Luca’s dog made things worse. “Fulvia called 118, they rushed me to theBufalini hospital in Cesena where I was admitted to intensive care. They sedated me, I wasn’t alert.”
The awakening from the coma and the difficult return to normalcy
The former Japan and UAE coach, not surprisingly, he doesn’t remember anything: “The first image after waking up from the coma? There were only medical personnel in the room, no family members had been admitted. I sit down and look at my legs: after a month lying in bed, they looked like those of an elderly person. ‘Where have my muscles gone?’ I asked incredulously.” No brain damage, thankfully. It’s a long road to recoveryMarconi hospital in Cesenatico: “I did physiotherapy, worked with speech therapists. I have to thank the doctors and all the staff of the two institutes who followed me. They were extraordinary.”
Zaccheroni today: lots of football on TV and waiting for the return
Not only as a coach, but also as a patient Zaccheroni he was a nonconformist: “The nurses told me that I was rebellious, I was agitated and tore my tubes”. But now the worst seems to be over: “I lost two diopters from my eye, the lesser evil considering the initial damage. I don’t have a license because before I can get it back I will have to take tests and I have some short-term memory deficits”. The recurring thought is always football: “I’ve started watching games on TV again. I should have been on the bench for the next game Italian National Non-Profit of which I have been coach since last year, but I preferred to postpone until I’ve fully recovered. I will also resume the technical meetings of the Fifa“.
