When Pittsburgh Steelers running back James Conner was diagnosed with cancer during college everyone knew it was serious, but he has now revealed just how serious it was. Conner recently appeared on rapper Mike Stud's podcast and said that doctors told him that when he was diagnosed, doctors told him he only had a week to live if they didn't catch it.

“I get some tests done,” Conner said in the hour long interview via SteelersDepot.com. “I got a tumor surrounding my heart, bro. My heart, I got tumors growing all around it, pressing on it…doctor told me I had about a week left. He said you got about a week if you didn’t get this treated. At the rate it was growing.”

Conner was ultimately diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and had to go through chemotherapy while also recovering from an ACL injury. Conner admits that he was scared after learning the diagnosis and was most worried about telling his brothers who he is really close to.

“My brothers would kill for me. My oldest one, I’m the youngest of five, and all of them would do anything in the world. My security, my protection, my right hand. How would they feel if their youngest brother wasn’t here? How would they feel if their youngest brother died?”

Conner said that if it wasn't for the knee injury, he wouldn't have ever gone to the doctor, and that probably actually saved his life. He was officially declared cancer-free in May of 2016, just a few weeks after the Steelers drafted him, and the hope is that chapter of his life is behind him for good.