Former Sunderland and Birmingham City boss Tony Mowbray is eyeing a return to management after “the toughest year” of his life.
The 60-year-old stepped away as Blues boss just eight games into his tenure after he was diagnosed “out of nowhere” with bowel cancer in February.
Mowbray is on the road to recovery after surgery, but his passion for football remains undimmed after an uncertain 2024.
“I do want to go back to work because football is in my blood, it’s what I do,” he told BBC Radio Tees.
“I still have issues, I’m still, at the moment not 100% ready for work.
“But somewhere down the line. My body’s telling me that I’m not ready yet.”
His diagnosis, picked up from an annual check-up through the League Managers’ Association, capped a dark few months.
Last November, while Sunderland boss, he received a phone call from his son during a board meeting telling him his home had been burgled.
“I left that meeting and raced home to see the house full of police officers,” he recalled.
“So the start of this [past] year started really badly for us as a family and then I lost my job at Sunderland.”
Fortunes seemed to be picking up when, within weeks of leaving the Black Cats, he was offered the job at Birmingham City following Wayne Rooney’s departure.
He had made a good start at St Andrew’s, picking up 10 points from his opening six league games, before a colonoscopy revealed bowel cancer.
Suddenly, his world “came crashing down”.
“We had just beaten Sunderland and Blackburn, my two previous clubs, and things were looking good, the place was bouncing, the stadium was full, and I was really looking forward to having a great time there,” he added.
“Unfortunately, 10 days later I was in a hospital bed in Manchester having a 10-hour operation and my life changed.”
The ordeal of surgery and prospect of an uncertain future prompted a change of focus for the husband and father-of-three.
“When you get an illness like that it’s about the family,” said Mowbray, who has also managed Hibernian, West Bromwich Albion, Celtic, Middlesbrough and Coventry.
“I remember sitting in a hospital bed and my kids had tears in their eyes, not sure whether I’d get through it or not, to be honest. I was very, very ill.
“I did come home from that and the period was very up and down.
“Some days you were feeling great, and others I would collapse and black out and find myself on the kitchen floor.
“I phoned the chief executive at Birmingham and told him that health and family is what life’s about and I needed to get myself right, so I left that job.”
Mowbray describes the “amazing” support from both Sunderland and Birmingham by honouring the contracts he signed as “humbling”.
But the “normal working-class lad from the north east”, who played as a central defender for Middlesbrough, Celtic and Ipswich, is keen to earn his wage back in the changing room and pass on his experience of football and life to young players.
For now, however, he has a bigger message to impart.
“If there’s something that isn’t normal, don’t be afraid to go and see your doctor,” he said.
“If I didn’t do that I probably would not have been here today, or I’d have been in a situation where I wouldn’t have been able to have an operation and recover.
“It’s not only you, think about your family.”
