'Because of that pain I never want to go back' - Patrick Lefevere reveals the cause of his month long hospital stay

Former Soudal-Quick-Step boss, Patrick Lefevere has at last cast light on the reasons behind his recent month long stay in a Belgian hospital.

Speaking to Belgian news site, Het Laaste Nieuws, the 70-year-old said he had been suffering from broken ribs following a fall, pneumonia and, more worryingly, a large abscess on his liver, which might have eventually proved fatal.

Lefevere was released from hospital on November 27th, posting his thanks to the care staff on Instagram, but the actual reasons for the hospitalisation have remained unknown until now. According to HLN, Lefevere's personal assistant took him to hospital after he had been feeling unwell for two days.

"They already saw that I had three broken ribs and double pneumonia," Lefevere told HLN. "I had fallen down the stairs a few days before. It was trivial. I hadn't felt anything from the pneumonia. I hadn't even coughed. Never coughed once. But then additional tests also showed that I had an abscess on my liver.

"I stayed there for a month. The abscess was on my liver, but it had nothing to do with my liver. They did a biopsy, and it's perfectly healthy. I can already hear people saying, ‘Lefevere, he drinks a lot, blah blah blah.’ I have a friend who had the same experience, but in her lungs. They don't know how the abscess got there. It's a bacterium, and it needed time to heal."

The abscess measured 10x12cm, and with infection rates reportedly ten times higher than doctors were expecting, they removed 400cc of infected fluid from the abscess.

"I was especially shocked when I read the report. During my time in the hospital, I wasn't really aware of what was going on. It could actually be fatal when I read all that. I also had two septic attacks. A septic attack is life-threatening," Lefevere said before revealing he had lost 10kg in weight and is not allowed to drink alcohol for six months.

After his professional racing career, Lefevere moved into team management, first working as a sports director before taking over as General Manager at Mapei-Quickstep in 1999, running the squad through its various iterations until the end of 2024, handing over the reins to Jurgen Foré.

“I'm glad I stepped down. It was enough after 45 years," he told HLN. "I was tired, very tired. I think I've done enough. I left behind a budget of €33 million, multi-year sponsorship contracts... You don't always do what you want to do, as is often said, but I did most of it."