Ilicic considered retirement but now he's leading Atalanta's UCL charge

It was not so long ago that Atalanta's Champions League hero, Josip Ilicic, was lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to a drip, wondering whether he should hang up his boots for good.

Back in the summer of 2018, the Slovenian came down with a condition so serious that it left him hoping he could 'go back to walking like a normal person, never mind being a footballer'.

Ilicic had been struck by lymphadenitis, an enlargement of the lymph nodes in his neck, caused by a bacterial infection. His recovery was far from straightforward.

He spent two months in and out of hospital, taking various antibiotics as doctors attempted to properly diagnose and treat him.

During that time his mind wandered towards an uncertain future. He considered the possibility of retiring at the age of 30, but feared something far worse.

Ilicic's friend and former team-mate at Fiorentina, Davide Astori, had tragically passed away in his sleep after suffering a cardiac arrest just a few months before. It was an incident he could not shake from his brain.

'What happened to Davide Astori was in my mind for days,' Ilicic admitted to Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport in November, 2018.

'I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about it, when I was ill this summer I really thought it could happen to me too. I was afraid.

'I thought: "If I don't wake up tomorrow morning? If I never see my family again?". There was a period where I was afraid of going to bed and falling asleep, just a few weeks and months ago.

'There are people with the same problem who ended up in a coma. With me the infection remained in my lymph nodes, with others it spread. If I think about it… let's just say I looked at things other than football.'

Those 'things' were his wife, Tina, and their two young daughters. Recovering from the illness was about far more than pulling on an Atalanta shirt again.

'I do my work on the pitch and then I come home to see my loved ones, and I always want them by my side. Life is short,' he said after returning to action.

'I'm stronger mentally now, something has changed there. Before I got angry at silly things, now I live better.

'I stopped watching football and matches on TV, I only thought about my family and recovering.'

His mental toughness served him well during the start of the 2018-19 season as he missed over six weeks - and the whole of Atalanta's unsuccessful Europa League qualifying campaign - while battling back to full health.

He eventually came off the bench in a league defeat against SPAL in mid-September and didn't look back, going on to score 13 times in 36 games to help the Bergamo-based side finish third in Serie A and reach the Coppa Italia final.

It was that incredible league campaign which gave Ilicic - and manager Gian Piero Gasperini's squad of bargain buys - the opportunity to take the Champions League by storm this season.

After losing each of their opening three group games, they find themselves in next week's quarter-final draw after hitting Valencia for eight over two legs of their last-16 tie.

Ilicic got five of those goals - including all four in Tuesday night's stunning 4-3 triumph in an empty Mestalla - to write himself into European football's history books.

Aged 32 years and 41 days, he overtook Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the oldest player to net four goals in a Champions League match. He also became the first player to achieve the feat away from home, and only the fourth to do it in a knockout game.

His haul took his total for the season to 21 in 29 games, with 14 of those coming since the turn of the year. It has quickly turned into the most prolific - and remarkable - season of his 13-year career.

After spells in his native Slovenia with Bonifika, Interblock and Moribor, Ilicic headed for Italy in 2010, joining Palermo for three seasons before moving on to Fiorentina.

His goalscoring record with both sides ranged from disappointing to solid, but he could never find consistency season-on-season. Well, until he joined Atalanta.

In the summer of 2017, Ilicic was about to leave Fiorentina for Sampdoria when Gasperini, his former manager at Palermo, intervened.

'Mister, if you want I won't go to Sampdoria and I'll choose you,' Ilicic told Atalanta's boss, and a deal for him to join was soon agreed.

The Italian has got the best out of him ever since. Fifteen goals in his first season, 13 in his second and 21 in the current campaign point to a player flourishing in his role as a second striker in Gasperini's free-scoring side.

Ilicic has struggled with the stress of competition for his place before, but he has benefited greatly from playing alongside club captain Papu Gomez.

There is no envy or jealousy between the two veterans - Gomez is also 32 - and they are seen as the two leaders of a side making noises both in Italy and around the continent.

Both strong characters, the pair are friends and enjoy a good relationship off the pitch. Gomez even interrupted Ilicic's press conference this week to plant a kiss on his cheek.

He is a popular figure in the Atalanta dressing room, despite often complaining about injuries, aches and pains. His moans have even earned him the nickname 'grandmother' among his team-mates, who are not afraid to rib him.

'I am getting better with age. I am having fun and want to carry on improving,' Ilicic said after his four-goal performance on Tuesday night.

'I just focus on what I am doing, not the defenders who are in front of me. I see a space and I go there.'

Ilicic's numbers certainly suggest that there is more to come from him as Atalanta attempt to try and continue their amazing debut season in the Champions League.

But after finally finding a club to call home, dealing with the death of a close friend and recovering from a serious health scare, this will mean so much more to the man spearheading Europe's most surprising success story.