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#INSERT type:image caption:Ian St John must undergo further surgery. END# Former Liverpool and Scotland striker Ian St John has said he will "battle on" after revealing he has cancer. St John, who turned 76 last Saturday, spent two weeks in hospital in April when he had surgery to remove his bladder and prostate. He is convalescing at his Wirral home and has been told he needs another operation, but said he remained hopeful that he could beat the disease. Liverpool tweeted a message of support for him. "The prognosis is not good because I've got to go back," he told the Liverpool Echo. "But if they can sort it this time, then I'm hopeful. "I hope that the operation will be conclusive, that it will tidy up what is down there. There is nothing you can do about it other than battle on. People who have had it will tell you: 'You can get fit again.' St John, who made 425 appearances for Liverpool between 1961 and 1971, said he had had bladder cancer for "two or three years." "We weren't too bothered about that as we felt it was contained," he said. "But cancer, it creeps around down there and the problem had gone from my bladder, where we hoped it would be contained, and it got into the prostate. "Therefore the decision was made to remove both of them. That was done eight to 10 weeks ago." St John, who joined Liverpool from Motherwell, won two First Division titles in his decade at Anfield and scored the goal that ensured the Reds won the FA Cup for the first time with a 1965 victory over Leeds. He later played for Coventry and Tranmere, then managed Motherwell and Portsmouth before forging a career as a television pundit and presenter.
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