Former Scotland manager Craig Brown admitted he was “heartbroken” as he passed on his best wishes to Andy Goram.
The Rangers legend revealed to the Daily Record yesterday how he has been given six months to live after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Goram knocked back chemotherapy after being told it would only give him an extra 12 weeks.
The 58-year-old won 43 caps for Scotland, many under Brown ’s management in the 1990s including all three fixtures at Euro 96, and the pair were inducted into the Hampden Hall of Fame at the same time in 2010.
Goram's international career ended abruptly when he left a training camp in America ahead of the 1998 World Cup in France just 15 days before the tournament was due to begin.
Rival Jim Leighton had been handed the number one jersey for the competition.
But Brown has rubbished claims there was ever a fall out with the man dubbed The Goalie.
Indeed the 81-year-old insists a special bond between the two has remained in place ever since that highly sensitive moment in the States in which Goram left the camp but not before opening his heart to his manager in a letter which Brown still has to this day.
Speaking at Hampden on Monday, Brown said: “I’m heartbroken for Andy. I have the highest regard for him and wish him the very best.
“He is a gem of a guy. I have spoken at dinners with him which he’s very good at too.
“I get on very well with Andy. He came back from the squad in America but the reasons were nothing to do with football.
“Andy would admit that. But he wrote me the most delightful letter when he left the squad.
“It was in his own handwriting .. I know because he is a lovely writer.
“He wrote this letter and it was wishing the team well.
“He said he was sorry to have to leave the camp but he wished the team, the management, Jim Leighton and everyone all the best.
“I still have the letter.
“People thought there had been a disagreement. But I always got on great with him. It’s very hard not to like Andy Goram.”
