I look at it and think the man above must have something for me to do. ‘It’s probably the reason I’m still here. ‘It has inspired me,’ he says, reflecting on his health. He has recovered the strength to graduate from a Zimmer frame but cannot walk far without his cane, and has had to change his flat because he could not cope with the stairs.Ĭonsidering all of this, however, Canoville looks well and is in fine spirits, savouring the sunshine, excited about the direction of Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel and charged with purpose to continue his work fighting against racism. Those footballing knees have been giving him hell ever since.
He picked up Covid again as he recovered and by the time he was finally discharged in April he had lost five and a half stone. He remained in intensive care, heavily sedated for six weeks. Emergency surgery led to complications, an alarming loss of blood and a second operation where surgeons discovered cysts and blood clots.įurther surgery was required and the ordeal rendered his body weak and exhausted. Within nine hours he was on the operating table at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. It was January and he was just over the worst of a midwinter bout of Covid-19 when he noticed a disturbingly familiar pain in his gut caused by a bowel obstruction similar to one he encountered four years earlier.Īfter failing to beat the pain with paracetamol and sleep he called an ambulance. ‘I’m not someone who gives in, but I was in so much pain I asked the doctor to put me to sleep and I didn’t mean sleep, I meant sleep-sleep. ‘I won’t lie, my resilience was tested,’ says Canoville. Of more urgent concern are two wounds yet to heal properly in his abdomen, reminders of a very serious brush with death earlier this year during which doctors warned his next of kin more than once that he was unlikely to survive the night. ‘Nah, nah, that’s been all right.’ He waves his hand, not keen to dwell on the Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma he fought off in his 30s.
‘No keyhole surgery in those days,’ he smiles drily, and flexes the other leg to relieve the discomfort as he drifts on to the subject of arthritis and a conversation with a specialist who told him that, at 59, he was too young for replacement knees.Ĭanoville, the former Chelsea player, glosses over the cancer.
Paul Canoville runs a finger along the scar snaking for about 10 inches down the outside of his right knee and recalls the game when one tackle effectively ended his career.
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