ENGLAND legend Sir Geoffrey Boycott has revealed his wife “saved his life” after he was rushed to hospital with pneumonia.
The national cricket icon, 83, went under the knife last month after being diagnosed with throat cancer for a second time.
But after returning home from his surgery, the former batsman was struck down with pneumonia and rushed to hospital.
Now Boycott has said he left hospital late on Thursday and feels “lucky to be alive”.
He also claimed he wouldn’t be alive without the “quick thinking” of his wife Rachael.
“She recognised I had taken a turn for the worse in my recovery from surgery for throat cancer,” Boycott told The Telegraph.
“I was recuperating at home from the operation and felt pretty good at first but overnight I became delirious, was not talking properly and looked awful.
“We had a pulse oximeter at home which she put on my finger and it recorded my blood oxygen level at 35 per cent.
“That is when she knew there was a major problem and called an ambulance.”
Boycott’s family revealed he was back under hospital care after developing pneumonia just under two weeks ago.
A brief statement from the family on Boycott’s X account read: “Thank you all for the well wishes, we’ve been blown away by the sheer number of them.
“Unfortunately, things have taken a turn for the worse and my father has developed pneumonia and is unable to eat or drink so is back in hospital on oxygen and a feeding tube for the foreseeable.”
Boycott revealed earlier this month he had received a second diagnosis of the illness after he previously underwent extensive chemotherapy in 2002.
He said at the time: “In the last few weeks I have had an MRI Scan, CT Scan, a PET Scan and two biopsies and it has now been confirmed I have throat cancer and will require an operation.
“From past experience I realise that to overcome cancer a second time I will need excellent medical treatment and quite a bit of luck and even if the operation is successful every cancer patient knows they have to live with the possibility of it returning.
“So I will just get on with it and hope for the best.”
SIR Geoffrey Boycott is considered one of England's most successful opening batsmen of all time.
He made his international debut in a 1964 test match against Australia and enjoyed a near two-decade long international career.
Boycott was part of the 1979 England squad that came runner-up in the World Cup.
He made 108 Test match appearances before announcing his international retirement in 1982.
At club level, the batter played for Yorkshire from 1962–1986.
In retirement, Boycott moved into punditry and gained a reputation for critical analysis of players.
The former Yorkshire and England batter scored 8,114 runs in 108 Tests for his country, including 22 centuries, at an average of 47.72 and amassed 48,426 first-class runs in total across two decades.
The Yorkshire great spent 14 years working on BBC’s Test Match Special after retiring as a player in 1986 before he stepped down from his television role in 2020.
