"I was terrified." Sir Alex Ferguson says that about the aftermath of his brain haemorrhage, and about going back to Old Trafford four months after emergency surgery in May 2018. He was 76 when it happened and is now three months short of 85. Ferguson and his wife Cathy were given a standing ovation when they took their seats in the directors' box before kick-off.

The Old Trafford return

He also made clear that the visit was not easy to take in. "I wish I could say I was comfortable. I wasn't," he said on BBC coverage of the interview. After surgery he had lost his voice and could not speak, which makes the return to a ground he knew so well feel even more stark.

The human side of the interview is the point. This is not Ferguson polishing an image at nearly 85, it is him looking back at a moment when he was frightened, physically limited and unsure of himself. Manchester United's current form is a separate issue, but the contrast with the club he built is hard to miss: they are 12th after five league matches and have 5 points.

The matches behind the book

The same interview folds into his new book, Games of My Life, which covers 21 defining matches from his playing and managerial career. Ferguson says his football story started long before Old Trafford. He won his first cup final playing for Govan High School in Glasgow in 1955 at the age of 13.

He also recalled how close he came to quitting. Stuck in the reserves at St Johnstone, he nearly walked away for Canada, before a 21-year-old Ferguson scored a hat-trick against Rangers at Ibrox in 1963 and revived his playing career. That is the sharper part of the story, because it links the book's title to the turning points that kept him in the game.

The BBC interview works because it does not separate the personal from the football. Ferguson is looking back at a serious health scare, but also at the moments that carried him from Glasgow to Manchester United. The book is out now, and the return to Old Trafford remains the image that stays with this conversation.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →