Dortmund – Scored exactly ten days ago Sebastien Haller (28) against SC Freiburg his first goal of the season for World Cancer Day Borussia Dortmund and thus put an emotional end to a long period of suffering. Now the attacker gave deep insights into his illness-related odyssey of the last eight months.

The 28-year-old striker realized that something was wrong even before he was transferred to BVB for 30 million euros during the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers with Ivory Coast, as he revealed in an interview with the English Times.

“I started the international match with this pain in my stomach. I thought it was just stomach pain. I couldn’t digest well for three days and had the feeling that I had something in my stomach,” said the 15-time Ivorian international.

Nevertheless, he initially saved himself from going to the doctor: “It’s okay,” I thought. I’m not someone who always goes to the doctor because he’s in pain. I take a few pills and it goes away. I tried to play , I’ve been training,” said Haller, describing the first signs, which were quickly joined by shortness of breath and flu-like symptoms.

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The newly crowned top scorer in the Dutch Eredivisie still played in the 3-1 win against Zambia in early June, but national coach Jean-Louis Gasset (69) let him out a few days later against Lesotho.

The complaints did not subside in the Black and Yellow training camp either, which is why Haller finally had himself examined more closely. A tumor was discovered during the MRI scan, but the type was initially unknown.

The clipper was then transferred to an expert, who quickly confirmed the fear: “I then went to the urologist and after five seconds of examination it said: ‘Yes, it’s a tumor – it’s testicular cancer.'”

“I’m not someone who goes crazy straight away. I wanted to wait to hear all the information and then react or make a plan,” Haller explained his first assessment of the situation.

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And added: “You try to process and digest all the information. You always try to observe the basics. What’s the first thing you have to do when something like this happens? Change your routine, your life.”

After the devastating diagnosis, sport immediately took a back seat: “At that moment I put football straight on hold. Ok, something serious is happening now, nothing else is important. I’m just thinking about health and the new routine. My wife was on vacation with the three kids. How do you tell them that? But you have to.”

In the months that followed, the 1.91 meter tall goalgetter underwent two operations and exhausting chemotherapy – but never lost his optimism.

“Because I prepared everything well, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” said Haller. “I’m someone who tries to always be positive. I have the mindset that I want to be able to see things through. I’ve pushed the bad thoughts away.”

The recovery process became a kind of competition for the former Eintracht striker: “‘Hospital? Yes, let’s go.’ You have chemo and every day you have this liquid in your body and you’re just focused – like in a game you have five days that sucks but okay you’re not alone 72 hours of chemo and then it’s it’s good for two weeks.”

The second operation finally achieved the desired effect. The symptoms subsided, the cancer was gone.

In the meantime, the attacker is looking forward to his premier class debut for BVB: “It means a lot to be back in the Champions League. You think of all the work you’ve done and that I’m so far away from here, If I hadn’t trained so much or realized how important it is to be fit.”

On Wednesday (9 p.m.) Borussia welcomes Chelsea to the round of 16 first leg in Dortmund.