Italy’s Cassano: I don’t know why I'm here

Antonio Cassano has admitted he thought he would miss the European Championship after he was diagnosed with a heart problem that required surgery. Following a game at the end of October 29-year-old Cassano fell ill and was rushed to hospital where he was found to have suffered an ischemic stroke. It was later discovered that he had a small hole in his heart and he underwent an operation to fix it. He missed almost six months of the season before making his return at the end of April. And he admitted Tuesday that ahead of the first match here against Spain he wondered if he would even make the Italy squad. "Before the game many times I thought, I don't know why I'm here, I might play or I might not," he said. "I didn't expect to play at the Euros, I was injured but I'm thankful not just that I'm here but because I can be important as well." "Of course I was very emotional." And the AC Milan striker admitted there was a time when he felt depressed about the problem that could have been fatal. "I have conflicting ideas in my head, now I can talk calmly about this problem," he said. "When it comes to the point of living or dying, everything else is put into perspective." "It was terrible and I wouldn't wish this on anyone. One day you're well and then the next..." Cassano's comments on his own health problems were rather overshadowed by the controversy he caused with some of the other things he said. Most notably he said he hoped there were no homosexuals in the Italy squad and used a derogatory term in doing so, bringing a stinging rebuke from gay rights groups. And he also risked earning the wrath of his club as he questioned their motivation in negotiating the sale of centre-back Thiago Motta to Paris St Germain. But turning his attentions to matters on the pitch the 29-year-old insisted Italy should still be considered one of the favourites for overall victory here. That wasn't the case as they came into the competition on the back of three straight defeats, although all in friendlies, without scoring a goal. The last and most damaging of those was a 3-0 loss to Russia but Cesare Prandelli's team went a long way towards redemption by earning a 1-1 draw with Spain in their opening Euro Group C game. "In all competitions Italy start as one of the favourites," said Cassano. "Before we played Russia we were amongst the favourites but then we lost and after the Russia disaster we were attacked from all sides. "The important thing now is to keep going our own way without help from anyone and we'l try to go as far as we can, I think we have the quality to do that." Italy play group leaders Croatia in their next group match in Poznan on Thursday.