The 75-year-old Swede was England’s first foreign coach, leading the team to the quarterfinals of the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, as well as the 2004 European Championship.

“I’m going to resist for as long as I can,” Eriksson told Swedish radio station P1.

“I have a serious illness.” My best case scenario is a year, and my worst case scenario is significantly less. It’s impossible to say precisely, therefore it’s best to avoid thinking about it.”

Eriksson, who had a 42-year managing career, heard of his cancer diagnosis “almost one year ago” and resigned from his most recent position as sporting director at Swedish club Karlstad 11 months ago due to health concerns.

“I live a totally normal life,” Eriksson told BBC World Service’s Sporting Witness.

“I am not in the hospital; I go every now and again for a visit, but I live at home and have friends here. Christmas and New Year’s brought out the entire family, which was rather large.

“I’m going out to try to exercise as much as possible, which is less than it was a year ago, but I lead a normal life.”

“When you hear a message like that, you value every day and are delighted to wake up in the morning and feel good, so that’s what I’m doing.

“I felt I was completely healthy, but then I had a little stroke and fell, and my children carried me to the hospital.

“After one day of evaluation, they informed me I had five little strokes but said ‘no problem, you will recover 100% from that’, but then they told me I had cancer that they couldn’t operate on.