Former Indian footballer Kajal Mukherjee in a city hospital on Tuesday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: At a time when anybody who is somebody is engaged with the World Cup in some way or the other, a former Indian footballer is battling the most dreaded of diseases.

Kajal Mukherjee, a member of the 1964 Merdeka Cup silver-winning national squad, is suffering from lung cancer and has been admitted to a city hospital in critical condition.

A skilful winger of his time, Mukherjee was detected with lung cancer in November, but it was only about 10 days ago that his condition started deteriorating.

“He is still in a critical condition and we are trying to give him the best possible treatment,” said Dr Subir Ganguly, who is in charge of Mukherjee’s treatment.

Mukherjee may be down physically and can barely speak, but that didn’t prevent him from making it clear who his World Cup favourites are. “Unless there is a big upset, Brazil are the favourites to win the Cup this year,” Mukherjee told The Telegraph from his hospital bed on Monday.

The 64-year-old, who donned the national colours alongside greats like Chuni Goswami, Syed Nayeemuddin and P.K. Banerjee, still has a number of admirers.

“He was one of the best left-winger in the country? Kajal and myself made an excellent combination,” said Goswami. “He was extremely skilful and had tremendous control over ball. I still remember his excellent dribbles.”

His former East Bengal teammate Shyam Thapa, remembers Mukherjee him as the George Best of India.

“He was senior to me and an extremely gifted, one-touch player, the likes of whom you rarely find these days. I would say Kajalda was the most stylish player of our time. In fact, he was the George Best of India.”

Like many of his tribe, Mukherjee is not happy with the treatment the AIFF metes out to former footballers and believes the national body should do something for those who once brought glory to the country.