Sinisa Mihajlovic’s doctor Francesca Bonifazi says the former Serie A defender and coach was the ‘perfect patient’ but was dealing with ‘one of the most aggressive diseases’ she has ever seen.
Mihajlovic died of acute myeloid leukaemia on Friday, December 16 in Rome.
Francesca Bonifazi treated the 53-year-old during the last three years. She is a doctor at the Bologna’s Sant’Orsola of Bologna, one of the best oncologic centres in Italy.
“He [Mihajlovic] gave courage to other patients who felt a sense of belonging in seeing how he dealt with the disease and also the relapse,” doctor Bonifazi told Italian media, including Sky TG 24, Il Corriere Dello Sport and AGI.
“He was a person with deep values, he didn’t only love football, but also loved his family, that always supported him steadily and coherently.
“I followed him until the end. It was the perfect patient, with a big personality, but at the same time the ability to rely totally [on doctors].
“He was dealing with a terrible disease, one of the most aggressive I’ve ever seen. The message he gave to all of us, his great lesson, is the courage to go ahead.
“The courage to not be afraid to face something you do not know, to know how to rely on, to fight without fear of pain. He suffered a lot, but he did it with great dignity. And we took the courage together, we gave it to each other.
“I didn’t only lose a patient, I lost a friend and despite everything, I insist that the worst illness is the one faced alone. His disease was terrible, resistant to any treatment and transplant, but he was surrounded by love and was never left alone.”
The former Serie A defender and coach had been treated at the Sant’Orsola Hospital in Bologna over the last three years, but died at Clinica Paideia in Rome on Friday, December 16.
“We thank the doctors and nurses who have followed him in these years, with love and respect, in particular Francesca Bonifazi, Antonio Curti, Prof. Alessandro Rambaldi, and Dott. Luca Marchetti. Sinisa will always be with us. I live with all the love he has given us.”
His wife Arianna and daughters Virginia and Viktorija expressed their pain on social media by sharing lines from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Italian poet Engenio Montale.