"King" Eric Abidal

"As a defender, my aim is to infuriate the opponent...I want him to be so sick of the sight of me that he has to move somewhere else on the pitch to get away."

Official: Abidal will have to undergo a liver transplantation in the coming weeks #fcblive #animsabidal

Hopefully he will overcome this. King Abidal all the best for you and your family.

Poor Abi. I suppose it's related to the tumour. I guess this puts and end to his season, and probably his career. We take a blow in our chances and I guess we will need a left back next season.

Goddamn... not again... Poor Abi... Should be OK by the end of the season, but this will still be a loss.

That really sucks for Abidal. I hope he manages to fight it off, cancer is a tricky sob. Anims Abidal!

free_cat wrote: Poor Abi. I suppose it's related to the tumour. I guess this puts and end to his season, and probably his career. We take a blow in our chances and I guess we will need a left back next season.

Do you think? I'm no medical expert, but I would have thought a successful transplant would be a faster rehab than his cancer treatment.

http://www.fcbarcelona.cat/futbol/primer-equip/detall/noticia/eric-abidal-se-sotmetra-a-un-trasplantament-de-fetge

It doesn't say much, only that he will have a liver transplant in the next two weeks. It is related to last year's tumor, but they don't say if the cancer has come back or how long will it take him to be back.

His character and personality is as much of an asset to the team as is his rock-solid defending. He'll be difficult to replace. Adriano, I believe is good enough. Otherwise I'd happily bid for Filipe.

It's an organ transplant. He's not coming back from this

Even after a successful transplant, there will be an observation period where we will have to wait and see if his body accepts the new liver. Plus, he will never reach the physical peak necessary to play professional football. I seriously hope I'm wrong though.

I'm truly devastated at these news

I know Abidal has the will to get back on the pitch. I hope he pulls through this!

Animo Abidal. I hope the transplantation is successful. If the cancer came back then there's trouble.

What a kick in the stomach......lost for words really.

I wont speculate on the future of his career, but health is most important and I wish him all the best.

Bad news.Hope the transplantation goes off successfully and his body accepts the transplant.
Oh and his career is over.We will have to get a new LB.
This season has been terribly unlucky for us with regards to injuries..

Awful news to wake up to this morning. Anyway I hope the surgery goes well and he recovers quickly regardless if he returns to the team or not.

Damn... I'm really shaken by this tbh, Abidal was always one of my favorite personalities on the team and he's such a great player he will be very difficult to 'replace' if he doesn't come back. The thought of him not coming back is very depressing for me

The Franchise wrote:What a kick in the stomach......lost for words really.

I wont speculate on the future of his career, but health is most important and I wish him all the best.

dani, I got to know of this today and can't express my feelings better than what you have already said here.

Anims Abi.

I wish Abidal has a quick and safe recovery . He's one of the players i really admire at Barcelona .
Get well really soon Abidal !

im sorry to hear this hope abidal makes quick and strong recovery like he did before i cant wait to see barca posters here bringing all of us good news.

best wishes to him cheers.

Sorry to hear wish all the best and a speedy recovery, one of my favourite players in the world of football

Can't say I was shocked by the news, it was always a matter of 'when' rather than 'if'. Nevertheless I was very saddened by the news. He is absolutely irreplaceable at Barcelona, both technically and personally.

ànims Abi - segura i ràpida recuperació

wow this is horrible news.

Hopefully all goes well and he makes a speedy recovery.

Even if he nevers comes back onto the football pitch, he is barca 4 life, no matter what.

remember though, mind over matter.

Abidal

This is actually quite serious. I mean, after the surgery, he has to take immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of his life(so we can safely say that he won't be playing football for a long time, if not ever).

In addition, people who get liver transplants live 10-15 years after surgery.

HOWEVER, Abidal is a very strange case, liver cancer and subsequent failure in people under 50 is EXTREMELY rare which leads me to believe he either had some genetic component(maybe a family member got it early as well) or chronic exposure to a carcinogenic substance(like alcohol, but he is muslim so I doubt it, and I don't think he smokes).

Because of his young age, his body should handle the transplant better than the average, so hopefully he gets close to a normal lifespan.

Normally liver cancer develops through chronic alcoholism(usually after Liver cirrhosis) and it is not a disease of the young.

ANIMO ABIDAL!

Deeply Saddened to read these comments. I wasn't aware how serious it would be... Horrible news, might buy a shirt in honour of the brave man.

Do we start discussing replacements now? Assuming next year we still have Alves and Adriano, and it appears both Montoya and Muniesa will be promoted, do we need to buy another player? Do we let Adri start? Or buy big on someone better? Who is better?

Wow. Fracking cancer, man

One of the nicest Barca players, he does not deserve it especially after his previous recovery.

Animo, fuerzas y espíritu, Abidal.

Muniesa has been called up to training with the first team as a response to the Abidal news, according to Sport. Looks like he'll be the temporary replacement (or the sub of Adriano). Hope the kid makes the most of it.