I ASKED THE DOCTOR TO CHOP MY LEG OFF
Former League of Ireland and Chelsea star Bobby Tambling tells his story
BOBBY TAMBLING yanks up the hem of his trousers to reveal the leg he once asked a doctor to chop off. A mass of scar tissue looks like damage from a late tackle by a shark.
Even for a footballer who trained with Ron “Chopper” Harris on a daily basis in a golden era for hatchet-men, this is not normal. Perhaps the last 100 or so games of his career, the period he spent in the League of Ireland, were just a few steps too far. Perhaps not. Either way, it’s been a struggle.
‘I couldn’t walk,’ says the man who scored 202 goals for Chelsea. ‘They had to teach me to walk again. My balance is not the best and walking is awkward at times but it doesn’t give me pain and overall I’m as good as ever.’
Tambling was 75 recently, a celebration of survival and a testament to his courage because there were times he feared he might be beaten by the devastating disease which had medical experts baffled.
‘I’ve never been through anything like it,’ he says, uncomfortably aware of the graphic content but keen to share his experience in the hope he might help others stuck in the same nightmare.
‘It started off no bigger than my thumbnail, on the back of my right leg, near my ankle, and it just spread and spread and spread. They didn’t know what it was or how to treat it, and some of the treatment made it worse. I remember asking if I’d be better off with it chopped off at the knee. When it was left to the open air I felt like screaming out and the dressing was changed at least once a day and I had to ask the nurses to be careful when they lifted it.’
Tambling had Martorell’s ulcer, a condition caused by sustained high blood pressure. The problem was, no one knew. For two years, the disease ate away at his right leg below the knee, exposing his nerve endings and overwhelming his immune system. He spent weeks in and out of hospitals for tests and treatment.
One day, it took hold on his left leg. ‘It didn’t jump legs,’ he says. ‘I shut the car door on my left leg and this left a small graze and it grew across my leg. I thought: “Oh no, not my good leg”.’
In April 2013, he made a rare public appearance at Stamford Bridge with Frank Lampard closing in on his Chelsea goal record, one which had stood since he left for Crystal Palace in 1970. He was helped onto the pitch in a wheelchair by his wife Val and her brother at half-time during a game against Swansea.
‘I was probably at my worst because I was getting taken down by it,’ said Tambling. ‘I’d had blood poisoning and pneumonia. I was taking 22 drugs a day. I was on so much medication.
‘At one stage, the specialist told Val I’d do well to survive. I didn’t know anything about this. I was out of my head, too far gone. But that day at Chelsea was magnificent because those people lifted my spirits and made me want to fight more. We were all in tears. As we came off the pitch, this hard-looking fella said to us: Well done out there, and Val said: Oh no, I was crying. And he said: Don’t worry, we all were.
‘It was the way the fans reacted to me. They sent get well messages. You don’t realise when someone’s low how much they cling to things like that. It makes them feel wanted. At one stage I thought I’d disappeared off the radar with Chelsea.’
If that was ever true, then it is true no more. Since his recovery, Tambling has been working with the club’s match-day hospitality team of legends. He flies to Stamford Bridge from his home near Cork where he settled after finishing a six-year playing career in the League of Ireland (he played 115 games in spells at Cork City, Shamrock Rovers, Waterford United and Cork Alberts.
To make him feel at home back at the Bridge, a “Tambling 202” banner has appeared in the Shed End. ‘It’s a devil climbing up there every week to tie it up,’ he jokes, but Lampard’s achievements revived Tambling’s legend of 202 goals in 370 appearances for Chelsea between 1959 and 1970.
The goal on his debut against West Ham remains his favourite. ‘I was only 17 and it broke the ice,’ said Tambling. ‘A shot from outside the box at the Shed End. Ernie Gregory was in goal for West Ham.
‘The week before I’d played in front of about 15 people at Hendon in the juniors and a week later I was back in the juniors. That didn’t matter, I’d done my job.
‘I had a good shot, a good left foot and I was strong and I could run. I wasn’t super-quick like my mate Barry Bridges (who also spent a couple of years in the League of Ireland with St Pat’s and Sligo Rovers) but I was able to run at defenders and shoot from outside the box. We were such a good team – I don’t think we realised how good we were – and a lot of my goals were made for me. I’m frightened of saying it because I get labelled with it but I called myself Tap-in Tambling.’
Lampard scored a penalty in that game against Swansea to move within a goal of the record. A fortnight later he broke it at Aston Villa, with Tambling back in Cork, watching from a pub.
‘When he scored, the Chelsea fans were up but our table was a bit quiet,’ he said. ‘I think because I was there and they didn’t want to cheer because this guy was about to break my record. I felt a little bit sorry for them. I said: ‘Listen he’s going to break it, don’t worry’. When he did everyone was chatting about it and straight after the game, Frank phoned me. That was a nice touch.
‘He almost seemed embarrassed to have broken it, but records are made to be broken. It stood for a very long time, and it kept my name in the programme, in the list of records. I left a footprint in Chelsea’s history and that was lovely. ‘I’m sure for a lot of people that was the only way they ever knew I existed. Frank breaking the record gave me a huge boost and brought me back to public attention, 30 or 40 years after I’d packed up. When I came back here they thought look there’s a body to the name.’
Lampard became a close friend and wrote a moving forward to Tambling’s autobiography Goals in My Life.
‘Frank was a marvel,’ said Tambling. ‘He was chasing my record but it really helped me. We were able to have a laugh and a joke. I’m glad it took a superstar like him to beat the record.’
Tambling’s specialist cracked the mystery of the illness when stumbling upon an article about Martorell’s in a medical journal. There were more skin grafts, complications and gruelling physio sessions required but his full health was restored and fit-again Tambling could be found signing books and munching birthday cake in the Chelsea Mega Store ahead of the Liverpool game recently, shaking hands with wellwishers and recalling times when his legs troubled defenders rather than the medical fraternity.