Jack Charlton's son believes the legendary manager was 'lucky' in a way that he died before his dementia got too bad.
Big Jack lived with dementia in the final years of his life, but his son John says the World Cup winner could still manage to look after himself and didn't need care.
Aged 85, Charlton passed away in 2020 after a battle with lymphoma.
John was in Dublin on Friday night to attend the FAI's centenary celebrations on RTE's Late Late Show and spoke about his father's dementia and death.
He told Ryan Tubridy: "His dementia wasn't as bad as other people who have had it. That might be because the blood cancer, lymphoma, that he had was what ultimately killed him. It was nothing to do with the dementia, although he had that.
"At 85-year-year-old - what age do you live until? So the dementia for him wasn't that bad in as much as if I walked in with my kids, he knew who they all were. It's not like he needed help.
"He could get up and go make himself a cup of tea. He could do all the things that he could normally do, it's just that his memory was going quicker than it should have.
"I've always said that in his life he's had a life that's been unbelievable from start to finish and even in dying he got away with it again for the simple reason that the blood cancer killed him.
"He never got to be as bad with the dementia so it didn't put the pressure on my mam and he didn't have to have care. He died before it got that bad so in dying he even gets very lucky in that."
Paul McGrath was also a guest on Friday's show and gave John a Book of Condolences which was signed by the Irish people following Jack's death during lockdown.
Reacting to being given the book, John said: "I think the one thing to say is that he was happy when the people were happy, and that really was how he lived his life.
"If he could make them as happy as possible, then he was happy."
McGrath also paid tribute to his former manager, by saying: "He knew I was a little bit different because I would end up on a train I wasn't supposed to be on - or it could have been a plane - and he always forgave me, always wanted me back on the team.
"I always wanted to play because we had a great rapport with each other. John and Peter (Jack Charlton's sons) used to come with us to come with us as part of the team.
"I loved it because, for me, it was the best ten years of my life."
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