Tony Mowbray gave a lengthy interview about his cancer diagnosis and current health state. Tony Mowbray, the former Sunderland and Middlesbrough manager, provided a detailed update on his health during an interview with the BBC. The 60-year-old was forced to leave his most recent position with Birmingham City in February and has been gone from the dugout ever since. Mowbray formally resigned from his post in the Midlands in May. Earlier this season, the former defender visited Sunderland and Middlesbrough, where he delivered a half-time statement.
Mowbray gave a current update on his health to BBC Radio Tees, thanking his two most recent former clubs, Sunderland and Birmingham City, for their support following a colon cancer diagnosis during the 2023-24 season – and detailing his journey through a difficult past year. “It’s been the most difficult year of my life, of our lives, because I communicate as a family,” Mowbray told BBC Radio Tees. “My disease was unexpectedly diagnosed. I was probably still Sunderland manager this time a year ago, or at least I believe I was, because I recall my house being burgled, believe it or not, yesterday, a year ago.
I was in Sunderland for a board meeting when I received a call from my young kid. “So I left that meeting and dashed home to find the house packed with police officers and everything. So the start of this year was terrible for us as a family, and then, weirdly, although I understand football, I lost my job at Sunderland. I had an incredible phone call and meeting about joining Birmingham City and the plans that that football club had, and they saw me as the guy who could bring that together and take it on the journey, hopefully back to the Premier League for them. I was happy to do that, and then my world came crashing down.
“I had a doctor’s appointment through the League Managers Association to go to Manchester for a check-up. Every year, you have a full-body MOT, which basically includes everything. Your hearing, your vision, everything, and I went along, and out of nowhere, part of it was having a colonoscopy since I had stated that I had some problems. The manner I went to the toilet had altered, so they looked into it, and I was diagnosed with colon cancer out of nowhere, which is rather shocking. I needed to go to the football club where I had recently started working. I had only been manager for eight games; I believe I won four, drew two, and lost two.
“We were doing fairly well, and we’d just beaten Sunderland and Blackburn, my two former clubs, and things were looking fantastic; the town was hopping, the stadium was packed, and I was really looking forward to having a good time there. Unfortunately, ten days later, I was in a hospital bed in Manchester, undergoing a ten-hour operation, and my life changed dramatically. The sad part is that, professionally, I watch Birmingham every week and look at the players, and they have replaced almost the entire team. There are just maybe two or three left from when I went there.
“I knew the owner’s strategy, and I expected it to be an exciting phase of my career.I wish them all the best, and I hope they can succeed in League One this year. When you receive an illness like I did, it’s mostly about your family. I recall sitting in a hospital bed in Manchester, not Teesside, with my children in tears. To be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I’d make it through; I was quite ill. I did come home from that, and the period has been quite up and down.
“Some days you were feeling great, and other days I would collapse, black out, and end up on the kitchen floor.” I sat down with my wife and called Birmingham’s Chief Executive, telling him that health and family are the most important aspects of life, and I needed to take care of myself. I left that job. I’d like to put on record that both Sunderland and Birmingham City have been fantastic to me. A year without work, a year without money, yet those football clubs still looked after me and honored the obligations I signed.
“Again, it’s extremely humbling that people are almost paying me not for working for them, but because I signed a contract in good faith, and they deserve it. I mentioned how wonderful they’ve been for me and my family. That’s all I’ll say; I don’t want to go into detail beyond the fact that I still have problems. I’m still not quite ready for work. I’m hoping that in a few months, my body will have recovered from a recent operation, and I’ll be able to return to work.
“Football is in my blood; it’s what I do.” I’d like to get involved with a group of young men and talk to them about life and football, what it takes to be a winner, and how to get to the next level. The sacrifices you must make, and I hope to inspire them via some of the stories I share about life, fighting, work, quality, and skill. My body is telling me that I am not quite ready yet.
I’m here today; I almost called this morning and said I had a really awful night last night, but I want it to come so I can watch live football.
“I’ve always enjoyed the border, and I hope we’ll see a nice triumph and performance today. Someday, maybe, I’ll bring another club to Middlesbrough, and I’ll be able to applaud the fans before the game, knowing that there will be two great teams on the pitch competing for a win. Look, thank you for being so upfront and honest because you didn’t have to, and everyone listening obviously loves you from a borough and beyond.
“I know there’s a really high-profile Chris Hoy right now telling men, and he’s had a horrible situation, but he’s actually telling people, and I think it’s right, if there’s something not right, not normal in your life, whether it’s prostate and it’s more difficult to go to the toilet, or it’s the back end of your body and it’s different. It wasn’t that I couldn’t go; it was something different, and I wanted it checked out, so they put a camera up, and if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be here today, or I wouldn’t have been able to have an operation and recover.
“That’s the case for me, so the message for me is loud and clear: males, in particular, and this applies to all sexes, but I know men don’t like to see doctors. I feel like a typical working-class lad from the North East. People don’t want to go to the doctor, but I’ve been fortunate throughout my working history to have a club doctor who has been a huge assistance, and without him, I might not be here today.
“Ultimately, the club doctor recommended a colonoscopy, which is what happened, so if something isn’t right, don’t be reluctant to consult your doctor. Make an appointment; I know it can be difficult to get an appointment on the NHS at times, but make an appointment and go talk to the doctor; if they believe you need a colonoscopy or a prostate test, it’s worth it because it’s not just you.
“So think about your family, if you have children, think about your children and what they enjoy, and they want to see their father till he’s an old man, when they can ideally take him on vacation or push him around in a wheelchair or whatever. But it’s about your family, and that’s what I discovered while sitting in that bed in Manchester and making the enormous decision to leave the job and have no money coming in, no work, because I need to be ready and in that life for kids and my wife.”
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