Former Liverpool star Mrk Gonzalez has opened up on the terrifying moment he was told he about to have a heart attack and revealed he 'could have died at any moment'.
The 36-year-old was at home in his native Chile earlier this month when he felt a "a very low feeling of chest pain".
Gonzalez had gone to bed some time around midnight, but drove himself to hospital at 4am as the pain got worse, though admitted he didn't think it was anything important.
Speaking to LFCTV’s Extra Time, Gonzalez recalled: "They did some blood tests and stuff and they said, ‘We have to take you urgently to another hospital because you are going to suffer a heart attack’. I said, ‘Are you joking? I need to take my son to school!’ because I wasn’t feeling that bad.
“I had chest pain but I wasn’t really bad, but I was going to be really bad if they didn’t take care of it immediately. So I had to go to the hospital, had a lot of exams, an MRI, blood tests… I was feeling really strange because I wasn’t feeling that bad.
"But at any moment I could even have died because I was having a very big inflammation in my heart caused by a virus. I had to stay for two days in the hospital."
Gonzalez only finished playing in 2019 and has remained an active person, though conceded he has now had to take a back seat from sport and exercise to concentrate on his health.
“It wasn’t that easy for me because, like I said, I was feeling good. But inside I wasn’t that good, I could have died. But right now I am recovering, I feel like nothing ever happened," he added.
"The worst part is that I have to be six months with no sports, I don’t know what I’m going to do! I just have to take care of myself."
Worryingly Gonzalez explained how he had felt the same pain "four or five times before" but is now just thankful the situation didn't have a worse outcome.
His wife, Maura Rivera, wrote on Instagram after the ordeal: “The love of my life, my soul mate, what a shock you have given me.
“The past few nights have been terrible. Days filled with uncertainty, it's been really frightening.
“I am writing this as you are still here with us and a little better - and because in many ways, the fact that you are still here with us, makes us cherish every moment we have together, family and above all, life itself."
The former winger only spent one season at Liverpool from 2006-07 after signing from Albacete, making a total of 36 appearances, scoring three goals.
After departing Anfield Gonzalez had spells at Real Betis and CSKA Moscow before featuring for various clubs in South America.
