Iker Casillas has recalled Jose Mourinho was "one of the first people" to check on his condition after he suffered a heart attack in 2019.
The Spanish World Cup winner was rushed to hospital after the heart attack occurred in a training session with Porto and he spent five days in the care of doctors.
Casillas had joined the Portuguese giants four years earlier as his frosty relationship with then-Real Madrid boss Mourinho led to him leaving Los Blancos after 725 appearances and 25 years at his boyhood club.
But Mourinho put his professional rift with the goalkeeping icon aside to check on Casillas in the immediate aftermath of his heart attack.
“A lot of people don't know it but Jose Mourinho was one of the first people to call about me, to call me to find out how I was,” Casillas told ESPN .
The 39-year-old was later seen embracing Mourinho at the FIFA congress in what Casillas recalls being an emotional event.
“I saw people I had not seen for a long time, it makes you appreciate the little things in life,” Casillas said. “You live more from day to day, you stop just being in your own little world.
“I was very lucky, other people don’t have that. I felt that I was definitely going to die that day, and the circumstances forced me to reconsider everything.
Where does Casillas rank among the all-time goalkeeping greats? Have your say here.
"I'm a privileged person. If I can continue to play football, I will do that.”
Casillas returned to training with Porto but retired this summer and was offered coaching roles with the Portuguese club.
However, he is believed to have returned to Real Madrid, where he is said to work as an assistant to club president Florentino Perez.
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