116
(^) Daily Mail, Saturday, August 17, 2019
Football
EXCLUSIVE
INTERVIEW
by Ian
Ladyman
Football Editor
I
T WAS in hospital two
weeks ago that Mickey
Thomas briefly contem-
plated giving in. Maybe,
after six months of
treatment for cancer, this
was to be his time
‘I was on the bed with yet more
needles in me and yet more wires
and just thought that maybe I
couldn’t take any more. This time
I was terrified I wouldn’t be com-
ing home,’ Thomas admitted
yesterday.
‘It was an infection but when you
have had cancer, the infections are
the really dangerous things. But
here I am. I am not cured for life —
nobody can ever say that — but I
have a chance don’t I?’
Here he is, indeed, sitting on a
sofa in his smart flat with a bal-
cony overlooking the beach at
Rhos-on-Sea in his beloved North
he had not been able to eat
properly ‘cos I couldn’t
swallow,’ recalled Tho-
mas, who has spent his
recent years working
for United’s in-house
TV station.
‘Robbo has had
throat cancer and
looked at me
struggling in this
restaurant and
said: “You need
to get this sorted
out”. It was the
way he looked
at me. I
thought: “He’s
right. I do”.
‘I had been
told so many
times by my
GP that I was
fine. I’d had
blood tests
and tablets
and things.
But Robbo
really made
me think.
‘So back
home, two
friends — Mike and Shaun
Walsh — paid for me to go private
and get checked. My old team-
mate Joey Jones — still my best
mate — drove me in and went
home. We weren’t that worried.
Then the doctors said they hadn’t
even got the camera down my
throat because the blockage was
so big. The exacts words were:
“It’s a very large tumour. This is
not looking good for you”. I pan-
icked and asked how long I had
left. They said they didn’t know.’
Soon after, on hearing further
details of his diagnosis, Thomas
passed out in the consulting rooms
of Wrexham’s North Wales Upper
Gastro unit. At 65, he was desper-
ately ill and needed surgery almost
immediately.
‘I felt like I was on death row
when I walked into theatre,’ he
said. ‘I had eight teeth out on the
Thursday before the Monday oper-
ation as there was an infection
there that could have caused a
problem. That was an easy deci-
sion. I couldn’t give a damn what I
looked like, I just wanted them to
save my life.’
Thomas had the six-hour surgery
in May. Fortunately for him,
consultant Andrew Baker was able
to remove the whole tumour. Sub-
sequent scans revealed no spread
and currently Thomas is free of
the disease.
‘They have said they can’t guar-
antee it won’t come back,’ he said.
‘But the good news is that the last
chemo will be a week next Friday.
People say I look the same but I
don’t feel the same and probably
never will.
‘When they said it was life-threat-
ening I just didn’t know what to
do. But football people have
helped me so much. I genuinely
didn’t know I was so well-liked.
‘I was a bit of a lad wasn’t I? I
said things that got me in trouble.
I did strange things, I was head-
strong. But it’s been amazing, the
reaction. Oh my god, its bowled
me over.
‘People like Robbie Fowler, John
Hartson, Denis Irwin, Peter Reid,
Sharpey (Graeme Sharp), Robbo,
Rushy (Ian Rush), Kevin Ratcliffe,
Lou Macari and then a missed call
and a text from Sir Alex
Ferguson.
‘Fergie told me I was strong and
that I could beat cancer. My god,
that was like a drug in itself when
I read that.’
THOMAS was a waspish, creative,
instinctive footballer. His career
was a little nomadic, meandering
from Wrexham to United, Everton,
Stoke City, Chelsea and beyond,
and he admits now that it reflected
a restless, nervous personality.
In Manchester, Thomas is well-
loved as much for his colourful
back story as his football. In per-
son, he has always been intensely
likeable but to those who cared to
look he has always appeared rather
vulnerable too.
‘Your life swirls round your head
when you think it may be about to
end and I have been thinking
about mine,’ he said. ‘When I was
a kid I couldn’t read or spell. I was
too scared to walk into a room on
my own.
‘As a footballer people always
saw the cocky Mickey Thomas but
it was a front. At United I wouldn’t
go into the first-team dressing
room. I would get there at half
nine, get my kit on and sit in the
sauna and wait. After training, I
would wait for them all to go home
and then get changed.
‘At my medical I stood naked and
thought: “Why do they want me?”
I felt intimidated and it came from
being uneducated, from standing
in a schoolyard in Colwyn Bay and
being sent to a hut for ‘‘thickos’’.
‘Even there they put me on a
table on my own. I am not joking.
THEY SAY THE
CHEMO MAY SAVE
ME BUT IT FEELS
LIKE IT KILLS ME
Wales. It is a foul day, not
one for a stroll.
But this weekend — if
the sun shines — Tho-
mas may be out there,
just for a while, feeling
the sun on his face and
sea breeze at his back.
Coming towards the end
of weeks of post-operative
chemotherapy for the
cancer of the oesopha-
gus that could have
killed him, the former
Wales, Manchester
United and Chelsea
forward is looking
cautiously towards
the future once
again.
‘I walked to
the shops
the other
day and
thought
it was great,’ he smiled. ‘The
fresh air, the sounds. For me
it’s everything. But it’s day
by day. I am OK here with
you now but yesterday I
was so wiped out I was in
bed for 24 hours.
‘They say the chemo
may save me but at times
if feels like it kills me. It’s
so traumatic. But I know
I have to get it done. I
want to live so much.’
It was over dinner with
Bryan Robson during a
United visit to Bangkok
earlier this year that
Thomas realised the time
had come to take control
of his own welfare.
‘I had been not right
for about a year and
Former United star MICKEY THOMAS on the fight of his life
I had to have
eight teeth out
before the op but
I couldn’t give a
damn...I just
wanted them to
save my life
ON HIS TREATMENT
I joined because
I liked the kit.
Joey Jones and I
both lived in
Wales. So we
drove there and
back every day
ON CHELSEA
Highs and lows: Thomas in hospital during his treatment (left), scoring his famous
FA Cup goal as Wrexham beat Arsenal in 1992 (above), relaxing at home in North
Wales (main) and flying down the wing for Manchester United in 1980 (below)
BOB THOMAS/ACTION IMAGES
Highs and lows: Thomas in hospital during his treatment (left) scoring his famous