Tony Mowbray: Former Sunderland and Birmingham boss on battling back from bowel cancer
The ordeal of surgery and an uncertain future prompted the husband and father of three to change focus.
“When you have an illness like this, it’s about family,” said Mowbray, who also managed Hibernian, West Bromwich Albion, Celtic, Middlesbrough and Coventry City.
“Honestly, I remember sitting in the hospital bed with tears in my kids’ eyes, not sure if I was going to get through this. I was very sick.”
“I did come home from that and it was a very up-and-down period.
“Some days you feel great, and other days I’ll collapse, pass out, and find myself on the kitchen floor.
“I called the CEO in Birmingham and told him health and family were the priorities in life and I needed to adjust, so I quit that job.”
Mowbray described the support from Sunderland and Birmingham for the contract he signed as “humbling”.
But the “ordinary working-class lad from the North East”, who played as a centre-back for Middlesbrough, Celtic and Ipswich Town, is keen to earn back his wages in the dressing room and put his football and life lessons passed on to young players. .
For now, however, he has a bigger message to convey.
“Don’t be afraid to see your doctor if something doesn’t seem right,” he said.
“If I didn’t do that, I probably wouldn’t be here today, or I would be in a position where I wouldn’t be able to have surgery and rehab.
“Not just you, think about your family.”
