USA ’94 World Cup hero Alan McLoughlin in cancer fight

Soccer legend vows to win battle after kidney removed

Speaking to the Irish Sun, Alan explained how difficult it was to tell his two young daughters of his plight.

He added: “I wanted to tell the girls to their face, I wanted to look them in the eye and give them the news and that was the hardest thing. It cuts me up now even talking about it.

“A good family friend has just died from the same disease. They had seen her become gravely ill with cancer and I know they thought it was going to do the same thing to their dad.

“Cancer is a frightening word if you are detached from it but when you have seen what it can do as a family, it is terrifying.

“Thankfully my wife and my girls, like their dad, are resilient. We had our little moment in the hospital, we had our cry with the girls and with my mum and dad and then we dusted ourselves down and said we’d get on with it.”

McLoughlin hopes his story will help Irish men understand how crucial it is to keep their health in check.

Alan said: “It is vital that anyone who passes blood or notices anything unusual in their urine or stools takes action. I’ve been lucky, I didn’t sit on my hands and it might have saved my life.

“I passed blood that weekend and on one more occasion before the operation when I passed another clot. I had played in a charity match two weeks previously and I had got a kick that day, I might well have put it down to that.

“I had passed blood in the past, after I was kicked in the kidneys or in the stomach and thought nothing of it.

“You can’t do that, no matter how embarrassing it might be. Get to a doctor or a hospital. Chances are it is nothing serious but I know now it is not a chance worth taking.”

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Nster.com