Chris Todd: Why FA Cup win is no life or death matter for Eastleigh manager

Serious illness gave Chris Todd a new perspective and led him to try writing, acting and singing at the Royal Albert Hall. Glenn Moore meets a player-manager for whom a greater sporting stage may be next

Chris Todd in his role as Eastleigh manager

Saturday’s FA Cup second-round tie at Stourbridge could deliver the biggest game in Eastleigh’s history, one that would produce the most lucrative payday and put a hitherto unheralded club on the map.

The manager, Chris Todd, is a 34-year-old rookie 10 matches into the job, but while he is aware of the importance he will not get carried away. Todd has had bigger challenges. Seven years ago he was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia. But for a groin injury, and an observant nurse, he could now be dead.

Instead, since that shock discovery, he has written a book, appeared in a film, and sung at the Royal Albert Hall. Now in remission, he has continued playing and is technically player-manager, though he admits he has not trained properly since taking charge of the team.

“It does put life in perspective,” he said of his illness. “I don’t put pressure on myself [now], life is too short. As a club we have to, because that is the industry we are in, we want to be successful and I have that ambition as a manager, but it gives you a new outlook. I have done things in the last seven years I would probably never have done.”

Todd was at Torquay, having previously played for Swansea and Exeter, when he suffered a groin injury that required surgery. “I had a routine blood test after the op and the nurse, Lucy Grainger, said to me, ‘Your blood is a bit runny, do you have any problem with your blood?’ I told her it was fine as far as I knew.”

But Todd found it harder than expected to regain fitness and, a couple of weeks later, fainted while driving. Remembering Grainger’s comment he called the club doctor, who conducted some tests.

“We joked it wouldn’t be anything, then that night, while I was watching I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here with my wife and daughter, I had a call from a youth player at the club’s digs. He said a doctor was looking for me. I thought it was a joke, but she came on the phone and told me I had leukaemia. It shook me from head to toe.”

The early diagnosis meant Todd was back playing in less than three months. “The injury, and especially the nurse, saved my life,” he said. “Otherwise I’d have carried on not knowing my spleen was doubling in size.”

Todd, who still requires a yearly check-up, put his reprieve to good use. He wrote and self-published More Than Football: In The Blood to raise funds for leukaemia and lymphoma research. “It went well,” he said. “My aim was to raise money and increase awareness, to give people hope. I am a positive person, but some people give up. You can’t do that.”

Next was an appearance at the Royal Albert Hall at a fund-raiser for cancer charities. Singing, he said, comes naturally to a Welshman but his stage was limited to karaoke until the chance came to join the Big C choir.

“That will live with me for ever,” he said. “I met some unbelievable people. Everyone had a connection with cancer and some were virtually on their deathbeds. The word hero is used too easily, these people were heroes. They found the energy and will to sing at the concert. Within a couple of months a few had passed away, but I have fond memories.”

Acting followed, a lead role in the short film Meet Again, a wartime romance, and in the music video for Save Me, a charity single recorded by his brother-in-law, singer-songwriter Tom Watson. All of this, said Todd, stemmed from the desire, after his illness, “to try everything I can”.

The latest new experience, player-management, is going incredibly well. Eastleigh have won eight and drawn one of his 10 matches. This befits a club in a hurry. They were still in the Wessex League in 2003 but made the play-offs for a Football League place last year. The club is owned by Oxfordshire-based Bridle Insurance, which used to have an office at nearby Chandler’s Ford. There has been significant investment and Eastleigh are again in the play-off places with a side packed with Football League experience, players like James Constable, Jack Midson and Dan Harding,

While promotion is the priority, the FA Cup matters at this level. Neither Todd nor the Spitfires has played in the third round. He said: “I was at Exeter when they played Manchester United, but I was injured at Old Trafford. I made the bench for the replay, but did not come on. I also got there with Hereford, but I was on loan and recalled before the match.”

Eastleigh will be favourites against Stourbridge, who are two tiers below in the non-league pyramid, but Todd said they will not take for granted a team who already have two Conference scalps. If they do win he insists he will resist the temptation to pick himself in the third round, even if it would be a new experience.