Thiago Silva: 'When I got TB I was told my football career was over - but I found the strength to overcome it'

Thiago Silva brought the curtain down on his eight-year stay at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich and, three months on, the Brazilian will begin his Chelsea career against Barnsley in the EFL Cup.

But Silva, who celebrated his 36th birthday on Tuesday, has no intention of winding down at Stamford Bridge and is determined to keep making the most of his opportunities since being told his career was over 15 years ago.

“Now, I am arriving at 36 to play in the best championship in the world,” said Silva through a translator. “The Premier League is usually a championship that brings young players in, but I’m coming here as an older player so I see that Frank Lampard and Chelsea want a player with my experience.

“I’ll use the words of Carlo Anelotti in his signing of James Rodriguez. If you want someone just to run, sign Usain Bolt. With my experience and the excellent young players here I want to help Chelsea in this new adventure.

“I’ve accepted this new challenge and it’s going to be really good for me. Everyone knows that my ambition is to play in the World Cup in two years’ time when I’ll be 38. That’s a great responsibility.”

Aged 21, Silva was diagnosed with tuberculosis while at Dynamo Moscow and spent six months hospitalised during which time he was told he would not play football again. He still finds the memory painful, but credits his successful career and determination to play for so long to overcoming that gloomy prediction.

“That was one of the worst experiences in my life,” said Silva. “You have a dream as a child to be playing as a professional footballer and when I got the TB it seemed that the dream would be over.

“Thank God that I had the strength to overcome it and get well. It is difficult to talk about it because it brings back these memories. I remember my last day in the hospital. The doctor told me that I had not been cured and that I needed an operation on my lung, and that my football career would be over.

“But thank God, and to the specialist, little by little, I got better and got back. Then, little by little, with dedication I managed to play football. It is difficult.

“Definitely, it is something not many people have gone through in their lives and a lot of people have not recovered from a similar illness. So I think about it a lot at these moments – what I have been through. Thankfully I had the strength to overcome it.

“I feel very grateful to my family and my wife – at the time she was my girlfriend, just 17 – who was very supportive and gave me the strength to get over it so that I was able then to chase my dreams. Now I can say today that I am a champion not just in football, but also in life.”

Silva is taking lessons to learn some English as quickly as possible, but does not see the language barrier as an obstacle to him offering the leadership that Chelsea’s defence has so badly needed.

“In relation to not speaking English, it’s going to be difficult, it always is with a new language, but you are speaking to someone who speaks Italian, French and Spanish and Portuguese,” said Silva. “The tendency when you learn some languages, others come easier.

“I am going to learn English as quickly as possible. It’s quite uncomfortable for me, being here, giving this interview with someone else interpreting for me so I would like to give interviews in English soon. I’m studying Monday to Friday to speak English.

“With regard to leadership, anyone who has played football knows a little about communication, knows it’s a mix, it’s a similar language so I’m looking at the basic terms and words - tracking back, changing sides - you prioritise the important words to look at and focus.

“The other players speak a lot of other languages as well and the players that we have are of an incredibly high, technical quality and can differentiate intelligence which is essential in football.”

And having won a Serie A title at AC Milan and seven Ligue 1 titles at PSG, Silva made his Stamford Bridge ambition clear by saying: “Little by little, we will do great things for Chelsea.”