{"id":329470,"date":"2025-12-22T08:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T08:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329470\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T08:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T08:37:09","slug":"patrick-lefevere-reveals-serious-health-issues-10kg-weight-loss-month-in-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329470\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Lefevere reveals serious health issues, 10kg weight loss, month in hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Patrick Lefevere, right, during his QuickStep team boss days back in 2022, with the Belgian having since taken a step back from that role (Photo: Wout Beel)<\/p>\n

Patrick Lefevere has revealed he had a range of ailments, one of which could have been fatal, which he did not realise he had suffered until after he presented himself for medical checks. Though he had fallen at home and broken ribs, he struggled on for a few days as he did not know he had broken bones.<\/p>\n

The former Soudal-QuickStep team boss also had abscesses on his liver and, as a result, suffered two \u2018septic attacks\u2019, which can be fatal, before he had the fluid drained from off his liver, where the abscesses measured 10cm by 12cm.<\/p>\n

He said he felt unwell at an event marking the end of Tim Declercq\u2019s career on November 1st in Hooglede and went home. Two days later, at a rider reunion event, he was unwell again and wanted to go home but his personal assistant insisted they go to hospital for checks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey already saw that I had three broken ribs and double pneumonia. I\u2019d fallen down the stairs a few days before. It was trivial,\u201d he said of the fall, during an interview with Belgian newspaper HLN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t felt a thing about the pneumonia. I hadn\u2019t even coughed. Never coughed once. But then additional tests also showed that I had an abscess on my liver. Then it was completely fucked,\u201d he said, adding he was forced to stay in hospital for a month for treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe abscess was on my liver, but it had nothing to do with my liver. They did a biopsy, and it\u2019s perfectly healthy. I can already hear people saying, \u2018Lefevere, he drinks a lot, blah blah blah.\u2019 I have a friend who had the same experience, but in her lungs. They don\u2019t know how the abscess got there. It\u2019s a bacterium, and it took time to heal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a small lump, no. On Sunday, I saw blood \u2013 pump, actually \u2013 flowing into a bottle. It looked exactly like a full bottle of Coke. They took out 400mls. When the bottle was full, they filled it with a new one. But it wasn\u2019t over yet. A new scan showed that my intestines were also stuck together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was especially shocked when I read the report. During my time in the hospital, I wasn\u2019t really aware of what was going on. Reading it all, it could have been fatal. I also had two septic attacks. A septic attack is life-threatening.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he remained on medication, including blood thinners, and that he was not allowed drink alcohol for six months. However, he was allowed to travel, which he was happy about, and said having lost 10kg during the ordeal, he now just wanted to get better.<\/p>\n

He remained very tired and often had to go back to bed for several hours within an hour of getting up in the morning. Even speaking to people on the phone was tiring. While his life was now set to be slower-paced, he felt he lucky he seemed to be overcoming the problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the third time I\u2019ve escaped: first with a severe pancreatic tumor, then with very severe COVID, and now with this. I really hope it stops here and now,\u201d he said, adding he had no regrets about stepping back from his role with QuickStep as he felt very \u201ctired\u201d in the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Lefevere, right, during his QuickStep team boss days back in 2022, with the Belgian having since taken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-329470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}