Sergio Aguero has announced that he will be going to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as he prepares to join the coaching staff at Argentina.
Back in October, during a La Liga clash against Alaves, former Manchester City forward Aguero struggled to breath during the game and was taken away in an ambulance.
It turned out to be his last game in professional football.
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Two months later, after being diagnosed with heart arrhythmia, the 33-year-old announced a press conference to the media, where he confirmed his retirement from the game. “My health comes first," he said.
"Medical staff have told me it’s best to stop playing and so I’m now leaving Barcelona and retiring from professional football."
Now, after a number of months away from football, the highest-scoring foreign player in Premier League history is planning to play a coaching role for Argentina on the international stage.
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In fact, Aguero has recently revealed that he has already spoken to Lionel Scaloni and president Claudio Tapia about making the move ahead of this winter's World Cup.
“I’m going to the World Cup in Qatar. We are going to have a meeting this week,” Aguero told Radio 10.
“I want to be there. The idea is for me to be incorporated into the coaching staff. I spoke with [manager] Lionel Scaloni and president Claudio Tapia.”
Aguero's cardiologist Roberto Peidro, who has treated Aguero since 2004, recently revealed that the Argentina international has a small scar near his heart after a previous cardiac issue.
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"He has a very small scar in his heart area which is less than a millimetre which is why it sort of short-circuits and causes those arrhythmias," Peidro told Argentine radio.
"What was done using a catheter was to burn that area where the arrhythmias were coming out.
"We think it's going to work very well and solve the problem but our advice is that he shouldn't do high-performance sport that involves an important degree of mental and physical stress several hours a day."
Peidro believes the small scar was caused by a virus and not COVID-19 or the vaccine.
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"The most common scenario is that the small scar found is produced by a virus he's suffered at some point in his life and wasn't ever detected," he added.
"But it has nothing to do with Covid or the Covid vaccine.
"I spoke with no-one before Sergio's retirement announcement because this formed part of my duty of professional secrecy, but he allowed me to speak to the media and explain things.
"It was a shared decision for him to quit professional football. He was very anxious and when I saw the test results the first thing I said was: 'If you were my son, I would advise you to go this way.'"
Aguero himself recently opened up about his condition in a heartbreaking chat on his Twitch account.
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“If I try to play football now, I run out of breath,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to sprint again. I just feel like my heart doesn’t work properly.”
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Sergio Aguero, Argentina, Football World Cup