For all the talk that Harry Kane is set on chasing down Alan Shearer's 260 Premier League goals, one man whom Kane still has some way to go toward catching rarely gets a mention.
Between spells with Newcastle United, Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, Manchester City and Portsmouth, Andrew Cole racked up 187 Premier League goals; third only to Shearer and Everton's Wayne Rooney.
5 Premier League titles, 2 FA Cups and a Champions League winner among other things, Cole has not really received the post-career adulation that certain players of his talents deserve.
In recent years, Cole's fortune has been less favourable however. Only 46-years-old, the former England international contracted an airborne virus in 2015 that caused significant damage to his kidneys.
Additionally burdening him with extreme fatigue and weight-gain, Cole has revealed that he came "very close" to not surviving at all.
He has survived however, thanks to the astounding generosity of his nephew, Palmer:
He said look uncle I'm tired of seeing you looking like this and you know I can't see you living your life like this anymore so he was the first one to go for all the tests and he was a match.
Donating the necessary kidney that Cole required to survive, the treble-winner of 1999 did concede that his nephew didn't "understand at the time just how much pain he was going to be in."
However, with both parties now doing well again, Cole knows how lucky he has been:
I'm indebted to him.
He knows that, I know that.
We were already close anyway but we've become a lot closer and he knows the job he's done for me.
Why Cole has decided to bring this to the fore is the hope that his story can influence the law on transplantation in the UK.
Instead of people having to 'opt-in' to assure their organs are donated in the case of their death, Cole is working with a group that wishes to make it an 'opt-out' system instead; namely, that your organs will be donated unless you specifically wish them not to be.
You can watch Cole discuss the story below:
