Between tears, Luis Manuel Diaz, father of Liverpool striker Luis Diaz, recounted Friday how he was made to walk “too much” with little sleep in the nearly two weeks he was held hostage in a mountainous area of Colombia by members of the ELN guerrilla group. 

Diaz, finally liberated Thursday after calls from around the world for his freedom, told reporters at his home in the country’s north he went through a “very difficult” time, surviving “almost 12 days without sleep.”

Diaz’s wife Cilenis Marulanda, who was taken by the same ELN kidnappers on October 28 but rescued hours later, rubbed her husband’s back lovingly as he broke down in tears mid-statement.

Behind the pair hung a string of golden balloons spelling out “Welcome Mane,” his nickname, in Spanish.

Diaz walked with obvious difficulty as he arrived for the press conference, and had to be helped up from his chair afterwards and led away.

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