The Cowshed sang his name in song time and time again.
“Frankie, Frankie, Frankie, Frankie Worthington” rang out across the old Leeds Road turf.
And their hero acknowledged the cheers with a salute.
Now it has been revealed that Worthington, the former Huddersfield Town striker with a playboy lifestyle envied by thousands of supporters, is battling Alzheimers.
He is the latest football star to be revealed a sufferer of the condition, with another former Huddersfield Town player, Ray Wilson, among them.
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Details of Worthington’s condition was revealed in a Facebook post by his daughter.
Kim-Malou Worthington.
She posted: ”He was diagnosed several years ago and has been holding it off with positive thinking and football.
“They say several footballers from my dad’s era seem to have suffered the same disease, possibly due to the constant heading of the heavy football back in the day.”
Sports Editor gives his views on the Town legend below
Worthington, 67, had a playing career spanning 26 years that included more than 200 appearances for Leicester.
He started his career at Huddersfield and also played for the likes of Leeds, Bolton Wanderers and Sunderland.
Worthington, who also played for new Premiership champions Leicester City in a glittering career, was noted for his playboy lifestyle off the pitch as much as his performances on it.
He was labelled in the same category as George Best and Rodney Marsh and loved nothing better than partying hard.
In a revealing interview some years ago, his playboy lifestyle was to the fore.
The blonde-on-each-arm playboy lifestyle was a hazy memory for Worthington. His wife, Carol, has tempered some of his wilder excesses – and also persuaded him to drop his medallion-man jewellery. “She told me it was beginning to look a bit naff,” he says.
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“I used to be out ‘til all hours boozing it up, but these days, I touch nothing stronger than the odd glass of lager or wine. I like to be tucked up in bed by 10pm.”
Back in 1972, with Worthington on the verge of a big-money move to Liverpool, the deal was put on hold after a medical revealed he had high blood pressure.
Not to worry, said Reds boss Bill Shankly. Here’s a few bob, get yourself over to Majorca for a relaxing break.
A week later – after seven days of carousing, which involved two Swedish blondes, a night with Miss Great Britain, a casual encounter at the airport with a woman whose name he didn’t catch and a night with a young Belgian beauty – he retook the medical. His blood pressure was even higher. A bemused Bill Shankly cancelled the deal and sent his mother some flowers.
Worthington shrugged his shoulders and signed for Leicester City in a £100,000 move. “There was no point in getting upset,” he said at the time. “I just told myself it was their loss.”
WATCH Neil Atkinson speak about Huddersfield Town and England star Ray Wilson
