Sir Alex Ferguson has said he was "terrified" on the day he went back to Old Trafford after his brain haemorrhage in 2018.

Speaking to BBC News, he told BBC Breakfast's Nina Warhurst: "I wasn't comfortable." The interview was released on 2 October 2026, ahead of his new book, Games of My Life, published by Macmillan on 8 October 2026. The book covers 21 matches from his life in football.

According to BBC Sport, Ferguson suffered the haemorrhage in May 2018. Four months after emergency surgery, he was back at Old Trafford to watch United play Wolves. His wife was with him and "she was nearly crying", he said. When they sat down, "she says, that is fantastic".

"It was a long recovery really. It was 7 or 8 months," he said. "I wasn't allowed to travel or drink or anything like that."

He also talked about losing his voice after the bleed. "I couldn't speak," he said, describing how a therapist asked him to write down the names of birds, animals and rivers until his voice returned. He called it "a frightening moment".

Asked how he is now, the 84-year-old said he was "feeling quite good", "despite small injuries".

From Govan to Canada and back

Ferguson took Warhurst back to 1955, when he won his first cup final with Govan High School at the age of 13. He called it his "starting point".

He also described the moment in 1963 when he nearly gave up football. He was stuck in St Johnstone's reserves and had picked up the forms to emigrate to Canada. Then, with flu running through the squad, he was called into the team and scored a hat-trick. "It changed my life," he said. His advice to young people: "don't miss the biggest opportunity in your life."

The Class of '92

Talking about United's young side of the mid-1990s, Ferguson said of the doubts at the time: "I believe in myself."

Fan letters from 1995 protesting the sale of Paul Ince to Inter Milan were on the table during the interview. "Paul was a tremendous footballer," Ferguson said, adding: "You have to make hard decisions." The two are on good terms today. "He's a good friend of mine," he said.

The interview ends in 2021, when Ferguson was finally presented with his Scotland cap at Hampden Park, 54 years after playing for his country, according to BBC Sport.

You can watch the full interview on BBC News' YouTube channel and read BBC Sport's write-up. Read more about the book and the related Manchester exhibition in our article on Games of My Life.

Sources: BBC News, "Sir Alex Ferguson on the matches that defined his life" (YouTube, 2 October 2026); BBC Sport, "Sir Alex Ferguson on brain haemorrhage and games that shaped his life" (Neil Johnston, 2 October 2026); Pan Macmillan.

This article was produced with the help of AI tools and checked by an editor against the sources above.