Yuvraj made a comeback to the Indian team in September 2012 after battling cancer.
Yuvraj, who retired from international cricket last year, was awarded Player-of-the-Tournament in India’s 2011 World Cup triumph for his 362 runs and 15 wickets in the competition. He had played in the showpiece event while suffering from an illness and vomiting blood. The illness was later diagnosed as cancer on his left lung.
Subsequently, the southpaw took a sabbatical from cricket for his treatment at the Cancer Research Institute in Boston, United States and eventually made a return to competitive cricket in September 2012.
"There were a few ups and downs. I kept on speaking to Sachin, and he said, ‘Why do we play cricket? Yes, we want to play international but we play for the love of the sport. If you love the game, you want to play’," Yuvraj told Sportskeeda.
"Sachin said, ‘If I was in the situation, I wouldn’t know what to do but if you love the game, you still play the game and decide when you want to retire. People should not decide that for you’."
While Yuvraj Singh couldn’t touch the highs of the past after cancer, the stylish left-hander still played some memorable knocks and was part of the team for T20 World Cup 2014 and Champions Trophy 2017, both tournaments in which India finished as runners-up.
"So I had some good chats with him (Sachin) and played 3-4 years of domestic cricket. I was in and out of the Indian team, played the T20 World Cup. I made a few comebacks but it was time to move on because my body was not the same after cancer.
"But I still managed to come back and score my highest ODI score. I just wanted to be happy in my life. I wanted to be at peace and have no regrets, so I moved on."
The 38-year-old rued that the board mismanaged his career towards the end.
“I just felt that the way they managed me towards the end of my career was very unprofessional. But looking back at a couple of great players like Harbhajan, Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, also very badly mismanaged. So it is part of Indian cricket, I had seen it in the past and I was not really surprised,” Yuvraj remarked.
“But in the future, anybody who has played for India for a long time and has been through tough situations, you should definitely honour him.
"Give him that respect, somebody like Gautam Gambhir, who has won two World Cups for us. Sehwag, who has been the biggest match-winner after Sunil Gavaskar in Tests. VVS, Zaheer, also," he concluded.
Yuvraj Singh represented India in 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is. In particular, he dominated the 50-over format, scoring 8701 runs at an average of 36.55 including 14 tons and 52 half-centuries.