{"id": "1013421", "content": "

Former Chelsea and Watford manager Gianluca Vialli has revealed he battled cancer for almost a year but is now "very well".

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The 54-year-old has written about his illness in a new book, and told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera he hopes his experiences can be useful to others.

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"I'm fine now, very well indeed," said Vialli, who was a Serie A and Champions League winner with Juventus before signing for Chelsea in 1996.

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"It's been a year and I'm back to having a beastly physique! But I still have no certainty of how this match will end."

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Vialli, who works for Sky Italia as a pundit, said he had undergone eight months of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiotherapy, and had done his best to hide his condition until now.

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"I would have gladly done without, but it was not possible," he said. "Then I considered it a phase of my life that had to be lived with courage and from which to learn something.

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Chelsea's Gianluca Vialli
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"I knew it was hard to have to tell others, to tell my family. You would never want to hurt the people who love you: my parents, my brothers and my sister, my wife Cathryn, our little girls Olivia and Sofia.

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"If gives you a sense of shame, as if it is your fault. I would wear a sweater under my shirt so others did not notice anything, that I would still be the Vialli they knew.

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"Then I decided to tell my story and put it in the book... I hope my story can inspire other people at difficult times in their life."

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Vialli won the FA Cup as a player with Chelsea and, after being named player-manager following the sacking of Ruud Gullit in February 1998, led the Blues to victory in the League Cup, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Super Cup the same year.

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He also guided Chelsea to victory in the 2000 FA Cup final and Charity Shield but was sacked early the following season after a poor start.

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Vialli, who made 59 appearances for Italy, was in charge of Watford, then in the First Division, for the 2001/02 season but was dismissed after the Hornets only managed 14th place.

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