FORMER Rangers footballer Fernando Ricksen has said he has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease.

The 37-year-old told a Dutch TV chat show that he received the news he has the incurable brain condition last month.

It claimed the life of legendary Celtic winner Jimmy Johnstone in 2006, five years after he was diagnosed with the disease.

Ricksen, who was promoting his new autobiography on the show, told viewers: "I find it difficult to talk because I've got ALS [Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of Motor Neurone Disease].

His biographer, Vincent de Vries, said that the former Netherlands star was planning to speak to doctors today about the diagnosis.

Mr de Vries said: "Fernando has been diagnosed with a muscle disease, ALS. He's going to hospital tomorrow to discuss the diagnosis in detail with the hospital and the doctors."

Motor neurone diseases [MNDs] are a group of progressive neurological disorders that destroy the cells that control essential voluntary muscle activity.

This includes speaking, walking, breathing, and swallowing.

They are more common in men, particularly those over the age of 40, than women.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) affects the upper and lower motor neurons and can affect the arms, legs, or facial muscles.

There is no cure or standard treatment for the motor neurone diseases.

Prognosis depends on the type they have been diagnosed with the the age it started.

An Italian study in 2005 revealed that footballers are at least six times more likely to develop motor neurone disease than others.

It has claimed the lives of a number of former players, including Don Revie, who managed England.

Ricksen signed for Rangers in 2000 for a free of £3.75million from AZ Alkmaar, making 182 appearance and was briefly captain, before heading to Zenit St Petersburg in 2007.

However, he had a difficult time on the park, with a number of run ins with the footballing authorities.

Ricksen was no stranger to the courts.

In 2003, he was fined £7,000 for assaulting a neighbour who had complained that he was letting off fairworks outside his former home in Mearnskirk, East Renfrewshire.

In the same year, he was banned from driving for a year and fined £500 at Paisley Sheriff Court after he crashed his car into a lamp-post near his home following a meal out with his then wife.

In an interview earlier this year, Ricksen said that he behaved like a "pop star" whilst at Ibrox.

He reportedly said: " I used to wake up, drink beer, go to training and then go drinking once again."