Gattuso reveals autoimmune disease forced his retirement after 15 years of daily cortisone

Gennaro Gattuso has revealed that an autoimmune disease cut short his playing career in 2013 and has required him to take cortisone every day for the past 15 years. The Lazio head coach and 2006 World Cup winner, now 48, made the disclosure at the Festival dello Sport event in Trento.

“I stopped playing because of the autoimmune disease I got,” Gattuso said. “And I have been taking cortisone for 15 years. Throughout all these years I have said that there are people with my illness who stay in bed for four or five months because they cannot move.”

The former Italy and AC Milan midfielder acknowledged the daily toll the condition takes. “Taking cortisone every day is not easy. It has been six or seven years since I drank any kind of alcohol. You keep going until God gives you the strength to carry on.”

Despite the diagnosis, Gattuso moved directly into management after retiring, taking charge of Swiss club Sion — a club he had joined as a player just eight months earlier. A series of short spells followed at Palermo, OFI Crete, Pisa, AC Milan, Napoli, Fiorentina, Valencia, Marseille and Hajduk Split before he was appointed Italy head coach.

His tenure with the Azzurri lasted less than a year, ending when Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup after losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the play-offs. Lazio appointed him in June, and the club have made a strong start to the Serie A season, winning four and drawing one of their opening five league games to sit level on points with city rivals Roma.

“Before Lazio, I had come from an experience that cost me and hurt me,” Gattuso said of the Italy job. “The national team was an incredible blow. I wanted to start again immediately.”

He also explained his initial reluctance to take the Lazio role. “I said no to [president Claudio] Lotito two or three times; this time I said yes because it was a team in difficulty and I thought the players could give me something. We have started well, but the road is long.”