Torbjörn Nilsson (foto: Screenshot)
Swedish football great Torbjörn Nilsson suffered a rare spinal infection this winter, but has now recovered and says he's nearly back to full health.
Torbjörn Nilsson, one of Sweden’s greatest footballers, has revealed details of a terrifying health scare that struck him during the past winter. The 70-year-old, widely regarded as the best player in IFK Göteborg’s history, was diagnosed with a rare bacterial infection that nearly left him permanently paralyzed.
Nilsson, who scored nearly 200 goals in Swedish top-flight football, also played for PSV Eindhoven and Kaiserslautern, and represented Sweden over the course of a decade. After retiring in 1990, he remained active in football as a pundit, youth coach, and Sweden U21 national team manager.
But it was this past winter that brought the biggest fight of his life.
It began with back pain, which he assumed was due to an injury. He was admitted to Östra Hospital in Gothenburg, where he spent 10 days under observation. Despite multiple tests, doctors were unable to identify the cause for weeks.
“At one point I couldn’t move at all,” Nilsson told Swedish media. “I thought it was just a back knock, but suddenly I was paralyzed in bed.”
Eventually, doctors diagnosed him with a severe staph infection that had spread to the bones in his back, a condition so rare that even specialists struggled to understand how it developed.
“All I could think about while lying there was: damn, I’ll be so happy just to walk my dog again,” Nilsson said.
He has since been treated with antibiotics and discharged from the hospital. Today, he says he is at “98 percent” recovery, and has indeed returned to walking his dog — a personal milestone after what he calls the toughest period of his life.
Nilsson’s story is not just one of football legacy, but also of resilience. Despite a near-paralysing condition, he’s back on his feet — just as he was so many times in his playing career.