In recent months, Romania’s manager Mircea Lucescu has been hospitalised several times due to an illness he kept secret for fear that it might distract attention from his national team’s primary objective: qualifying for the World Cup.
Unfortunately, however, last Thursday the Romanian national team lost 1-0 to Turkey and were knocked out in the play-off semi-final, thanks to a goal from Kadioglu. Lucescu’s side will therefore play a friendly on Tuesday against the losers of the other semi-final, Slovakia (3-4 vs. Kosovo).
Whilst leading this morning’s training session, the manager suffered another health scare and was taken to hospital. The Romanian media were quick to reassure everyone, reporting that his ‘condition was stable’. Later in the afternoon, Lucescu made a point of speaking out, issuing a statement to ‘Golazo’:
“I couldn’t breathe and lost consciousness. I’m fine now. I got angry after watching the highlights of the match against Turkey. We made some incredible mistakes that cost us qualification.”
The 80-year-old former Inter manager remains under observation in hospital.