The ex-Swansea City and Newport footballer turned singer, writer, actor, cancer survivor and coach
After he fainted at the wheel of his car while on a roundabout Chris Todd decided he was going to make drastic changes in his life. Jonathon Hill reports...
FROM starring in a film to performing at the Royal Albert Hall and writing his own book, exSwansea City and Newport County footballer Chris Todd is in many ways far removed from the bulldozing performances at centre-half for which he became known on the pitch.
Now assistant manager at Yeovil Town alongside Mark Cooper, the father-of-three, whose cancer diagnosis almost ended his career, has experienced more than most and is relishing using the “life skills” he’s picked up to help develop future stars.
As a teenager in Penlan his “dream came true” when John Hollins called him up to the Swans first team for a League One encounter at the Vetch in March 2001.
“John is a lovely bloke and I later found out he’d actually come to my house in Penlan the night before to tell my parents I was in the team on the Saturday,” 41-year-old Todd recalled.
“I presume mum and dad didn’t sleep the night before with nerves, and John and my parents didn’t want to tell me because they didn’t want me to worry about the game.
“The next morning he told me and I just remember being so excited. I was a young lad and when you’re that age I suppose I was a bit fearless – yes nervous, but I felt ready.”
Alongside Matthew Bound, 19-year-old Todd held his own against imposing centre-forward Steve Howard as Swansea battled to a 1-1 draw with Northampton Town, and his name “started to get bandied about”.
“Looking back it was a massive call for John to put me in because I was lean and I was a lean character too in many respects and there were other options who were much more experienced than me. When you think about how a teenage centre-half playing regularly in League One would be spoken about now, you’d think you’d have half a chance of becoming a top player.
“I can’t speak highly enough of John for believing in me at that time. He played at an incredible level and was a legend and for him to see something in me meant a lot.”
Todd went on to start in 11 games at the end of that season which resulted in the Swans’ relegation to League Two before Hollins – who still lives in Swansea – was replaced by Colin Addison.
“We struggled in League Two, the club felt like it was on a bit of a downer,” Todd remembered.
“But I played 35 games that season and thought I’d done well, but I ended up getting released, which I was really baffled by. It turned my world upside down to be honest, it broke my heart.”
Not giving up on a career at the highest level, Todd got a trial at Nottingham Forest through a family connection to Dean Saunders.
“Forest were a very decent side,” Todd explained of his time there.
“They had Des Walker, David Prutton, David Johnson – lots of top players.
“After a month there the manager Paul Hart pulled me in and said they liked me but weren’t going to offer me anything at that stage because they wanted to stay loyal to their two other centre-halves who had been there since they were kids.
“I was a bit confused because I didn’t see anyone there who was streets ahead of me, but those two were Michael Dawson and Wes Morgan, so I can’t complain.
“It’s amazing how many sliding doors moments there are in football: it’s very much about being in the right place at the right time and of course talent and a bit of luck too.”
After a brief stint in Ireland with Drogheda United Todd joined Exeter City back in League Two and fell in love with the club and an area which he has now made his permanent home with his wife and three children.
“Mike Lewis, the former Swansea chairman, called me and asked if I wanted to go to Exeter, and I agreed to join them.
“But before I signed the contract Brian Flynn called from Swansea and asked me to go and train with them. I agreed to do a couple of days with Brian at Swansea and they offered me a couple of months because they couldn’t afford longer.
“I nearly said ‘yes’ with it being my hometown club and really wanting to return after I thought I got unfairly released, but it wouldn’t have been the right decision because the contract they were offering was too uncertain. My time at Exeter started a bit weirdly because I’d been signed by the chairman and the manager Neil McNab didn’t really want me.
“It was only after McNab left that I started playing and we actually did quite well in the second half of the season but we couldn’t survive the mess from before.”
The season culminated in Swansea claiming an unlikely victory over Hull courtesy of hat-trick hero James Thomas, sending Todd and Exeter out of the Football League on the final day.
“It was a strange day, a really strange day that I remember well, battling with Swansea to stay up after everything that had happened,” Todd said.
“I always remember us beating Southend on that afternoon and then seeing Swansea had somehow beaten Hull who had ripped up the league.”
After taking the Grecians to the Conference play-off final as captain with a team which included current Swans assistant manager Matt Gill, Wales’ under-19s coach Rob Edwards and ex-Premier League striker Jamie Mackie, he made the switch to rivals Torquay.
“Everything was going brilliantly at Exeter and we came so close to promotion back to League Two.
“I really got on well with the manager Paul Tisdale who was a bit different to other managers but knew the game inside out and was really into developing the academy at Exeter, but the assistant manager Paul Buckle left Exeter to manage Torquay and offered me a three-year deal which Tis (Tisdale) couldn’t match.”
It was at Torquay that Todd won promotion back to the Football League, he had his daughter, but also where he received a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia which changed his life. After fainting at the wheel of his car at a roundabout in Devon he realised something was seriously wrong.
“I was playing for Torquay in preseason, preparing as usual and we had really good runners in the team,” he remembered.
“But I was really struggling and then I got a bad injury in my groin. I also noticed my breathing wasn’t very good.
“I went for an operation on my groin in London, but after it when the nurse took the needle out of my hand the blood didn’t stop pouring out for a while.
“She asked if I had problems with my blood but I sort of laughed it off.
“Then I went back to training and was trying to get myself fit, but a few days after the op I fainted at the wheel, luckily at a roundabout when my car had stopped.
“From that moment it sort of hit me in the face and things started to add up. I rang the club doctor at Torquay and I had some tests.
When something like that happens to you it makes you realise that everything you’ve worked for and have can be lost so easily CHRIS TODD
“I then got a phone call the next day at 9pm. I was on the sofa watching I’m a Celeb with my family when I remember being told. The call came from one of the boys in the lodge in Torquay saying a woman was on the phone for me, and I thought he was messing around.
“But he passed her on and she told me: ‘I’m really sorry to say you’ve got leukaemia and you’ve got to come into the hospital first thing in the morning.’
“My initial thoughts were that it wasn’t real. It was a bizarre thing. My life just got turned upside down with one call.
“I immediately rang mum and dad and told them and they were with me in the hospital the next morning. To see them so worried was heartbreaking and a surreal moment.”
Luckily the cancer had been caught early enough, and remarkably a few months on Todd was back on the pitch.
But the journey he went on has stuck with him since and changed his outlook in and out of football.
“When something like that happens to you it makes you realise that everything you’ve worked for and have can be lost so easily.
“One moment I’m a footballer and you’ve got everything going for you, and the next you’re in a hospital bed being told they don’t know what’s going to happen to you. It completely floored me. I decided after that I wanted to live my life more and be more than just a footballer.
“I wanted to do things and try things which I would never have done if that hadn’t happened to me.”
Todd has since acted in 2015 short film Meet Again, he’s written a book More Than Football: In the Blood in which he documented his struggles with his diagnosis and everything that came with it, he has started his own clothing brand inspired by the loneliness he felt at the time called Not On Your Tod (NOYT), and he joined the Big C Choir made up of people who have had or are living with cancer.
He was with the choir to sing Run beside Leona Lewis at Stand Up To Cancer in 2012, and performed Something Inside So Strong at the Sunflower Superjam at the Royal Albert Hall in front of 3,500 people.
“My outlook changed from: ‘I can’t do that’ to: ‘Why not? I might love it.’
“The choir was absolutely immense. I’ve got a tattoo of the Big C Choir on my arm now.
“It’s up there with the best things I’ve ever done with the most amazing group of people I’ve ever met in my life and they’ll live with me forever.
“I told them things I’d never tell my family because I wouldn’t want to hurt them that much.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got the most supportive family in the world, but it’s a different type of support because I didn’t want to tell my wife and my parents that I was scared I was going to die and I was worried for them.
“I joined the choir at a time in my life where I felt I was in a deep hole, a bit disillusioned about life really. But chatting to them and understanding what they went through empowered me.
“That’s the backstory of what NOYT is. I found the best form of recovery was biting the bullet and joining the Big C Choir and it changed my life.
“The best form of recovery was absolutely about opening up about my worries and reminding myself that I wasn’t alone in feeling like that. I hope NOYT can be a beacon for what I’ve learned through that process really.”
Determined to continue playing, Todd departed Torquay initially on loan for Newport County before moving back to Wales permanently and to an Exiles team which he helped to break records. “It was brilliant to get back on the pitch at Newport. I was in League Two with Torquay but I wasn’t playing a lot and the pull of Newport at the time wasn’t just going back home to Wales but Dean Holdsworth the manager.
“I’d watched Dean as a kid and it felt exciting. Dean did a cracking job and we had a top team at County: Sam Foley, Craig Reid, Danny Rose and Jamie Collins were brilliant.
“I think the times we had there could have set Newport up for what they’ve gone on to do. It’s great to see them having cemented themselves in the Football League. I do feel we brought the club together almost, after what had been a tough time for the supporters there. The amber army were up there with the best fans I’ve played in front of.”
At 33 he found himself in the dugout at Eastleigh in the National League and still believes he could have taken them up if he’d had time.
The club narrowly missed out on promotion in his first season as manager and reached the third round of the FA Cup, losing 3-2 to Bolton Wanderers. He was surprisingly sacked just four games into the following season.
“Eastleigh is a big club in that league and with the owner Stewart Donald back (after a spell at Sunderland) I hope they can finally do it,” Todd said.
“I was sad with the way it ended because I thought I did OK there and
I do think with a bit more time with the players we had there we’d have achieved it.
“But I don’t hold any grudges about it and I put it down to a good experience. I really got on with Stewart and he said he wanted experience to get them up and they brought in Ronnie Moore and then Martin Allen but it didn’t work. I do think it’s a matter of time before they get it right there.”
He hopes his time at Yeovil can now take a positive turn following a much-needed takeover by local businessman Martin Hellier.
The club which was in the Championship 10 years ago has just been relegated to the National League South.
“I’m devastated about what’s happened there over the last year because I’m part of that and the fans are unreal and they don’t deserve what has happened.
“For what has happened to happen there has to have been problems behind the scenes previously doesn’t there? I don’t want to get too involved in that, I try to do my job to the best of my ability and get on with it.
“I want to help get the club back where it should be and now following the takeover we’ve got a big year coming up. It needs a whole reset and to go again and hopefully now we can start building for a better future.”
Does he use lessons he learned through his cancer diagnosis and everything that came with it? Will he be getting the players up singing together?
“I’m not naive and I know what’s worked wonders for me might not be for everyone. You have to balance it but I’d say my experiences outside of football and taking myself out of my comfort zone has taught me massively about life and that’s given me a good perspective to coach and manage.
“Of course there are many tactics involved but it’s about getting the best out of a group of people at the end of the day.
“I hope I understand people better for the experiences I’ve had. What I’ve been through has helped me without a doubt.
“I’m not saying I’d get the players up singing, but there are definitely things out there that can make a team come together that are nothing to do with sport directly.
“I’m a realist and I understand how it works and some might think it’s ridiculous acting or even being in a choir as a footballer, but to them I’d say: ‘Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.’”