Sir Alex Ferguson does not often revisit May 2018. He did this week, in a BBC Breakfast conversation with Nina Warhurst tied to his new memoir, Games of My Life, and the detail he circled back to was the one he could not control at the time.
“I had lost my voice; I couldn’t speak. That was a frightening moment.”
Ferguson, who was 76 when the haemorrhage struck, said the breakthrough came quietly, with a speech therapist and a notebook.
“I remember my grandsons coming to see me and I had lost my voice. Then they brought in a therapist and she started doing things like asking me to write down the names of birds, names of animals, names of rivers. That way my voice came back.”
Read also: Wirtz spells out what Klopp told him before the Germany goal
The return he dreaded
Four months after surgery, on 22 September 2018, Ferguson was in the directors’ box for United’s 1-1 draw with Wolves at Old Trafford. He told the BBC he had not wanted to find out how it would feel.
“I wish I could say I was comfortable. I wasn’t.”
Lady Cathy, his wife of 57 years, who died in October 2023, was next to him. The reception from all four stands caught them both.
“My wife was with me, and she was nearly crying. When we sat down, she said ‘that’s fantastic’.”
Read also: Jose Mourinho breaks silence after being dragged into Cristiano Ronaldo crisis
A thinner link to the club he ran for 27 years
Ferguson’s formal connection to Manchester United is slimmer than it was when he took that seat in 2018. INEOS, led by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, ended his paid global ambassador contract in October 2024 as part of a cost review at the club, cutting a role worth around $2.82 million a year. He remains a non-executive director on the football club board and is welcome at matches.
In the BBC conversation he kept to the health rather than the politics.
“I’m feeling quite good despite small injuries.”
Games of My Life is out now; Ferguson turns 85 in December.
Read also: Pogacar crash update: “I’m doing well; I’m getting better with every day after the crash”
Read also: Liverpool quietly signed potential Virgil van Dijk heir for just £1m
