Blues legend Alan Brazil made his long-awaited return to the talkSPORT Breakfast show this morning, revealing that he had been weeks away from death prior to his liver transplant.

Brazil, 67, a member of Sir Bobby Robson’s 1981 UEFA Cup-winning side, revealed in May that he had undergone the surgery having been off air for a number of weeks.

The former Scotland international outlined just how serious his situation was after returning to work this morning alongside co-host Gabby Agbonlahor.

“I am not going to bore everyone but it is remarkable really what happened,” he said. “One minute I am doing this [the show], I've finished at 9.45am, there's a car outside and I am like 'what's going on?’.

“Straight down to Addenbrooke's Hospital and a few hours later... wallop. They open me up and stick a new liver in there.

“So I did have cancer in my liver and we suspected that for months, to be honest, but they didn't want to go in and touch it and shake it up in case you could make it spread.

“First of all, they said the perfect match came in, otherwise I might still be waiting and people will know what I am talking about who might be on the list.

“You can wait 18 months, you can go down there, get ready to have the op and they say 'it's not quite right, go away and come back and we will phone you later, maybe in a few weeks' and it can be murder.

“I was so lucky, I went down there and they said 'we've got one and it looks perfect so we are going to do it now’.

“They inject you all over and you have to sign a few forms, you get carried in there and it's like 'goodbye everyone', that's how bad it was. I thought 'see you later'. Wife's in tears, it was horrible.

“That was the stage where I had to get it done otherwise it was see you later. I didn't realise it was that extreme but it was. They told me, ‘another couple of weeks and you were gone’. I had seven or eight hours on there, the fluid build-up I had was horrendous.

“They cut me open and there was a flood, it was that bad everywhere I had it. I did have a few complications, my heart stopped for 40 seconds. I said 'did you get the old jump-leads on?' He said 'no, no. It came back. We were about to take action but it came back.”

Brazil paid tribute to the staff at Addenbrooke’s: “I can’t thank the people at Cambridge enough.”

Photo: Action Images via Reuters