Gary Lineker received phone call claiming Alan Hansen's death was being announced

Gary Lineker has revealed he received a premature phone call about Alan Hansen in which he was told to prepare for the worst after the Liverpool legend's serious illness that left him hospitalized.

The Liverpool legend has since been discharged from the hospital having made good progress. In a statement on Sunday, Liverpool FC wrote: "Alan has been discharged from hospital today to continue his recovery at home. Alan, Janet, Adam, Lucy and family would like to thank everybody for their wonderful messages of love and support.

"It has been overwhelming and has helped enormously. We also hugely appreciate the ongoing respect that has been shown for our privacy as Alan continues his recovery."

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Speaking on the Rest Is Football podcast, Lineker explained: "I got a text message yesterday from Janet Hansen, Alan's wife, saying that he'd been discharged from hospital, that he'd gone home. I also saw that Liverpool had put out a tweet saying exactly the same thing. What an amazing piece of news."

Alan Shearer, who also worked alongside Hansen for the BBC, added that it was "great news" that Hansen has been discharged from hospital. Shearer said: "You told us at breakfast that you had a text message, so that was a great start to the day.

"As usual Mr. Hansen's timing was impeccable so he could get home and watch his team. Unfortunately [Scotland] didn't produce the goods for him, but great news that he's on the mend and he's back home."

Commenting on the phone call that he received, Lineker said: "I'm not going to share who this was but I got a call two weeks ago during the period when we knew Alan was really struggling from somebody asking me to come on and talk about the fact that it was about to be announced that Alan's left us.

"Genuinely, I broke down and then an hour later people say, no, hang on a minute, that's not quite the case. But he's pulled through through, and it's fantastic news. So hope you're listening Al. Yeah, well done. Well done mate. It's great to have you back with us."

Hansen made 620 appearances for Liverpool between 1977 and 1991. The former Scotland international was a pundit on Match of the Day from 1992 to 2014.