Knocking Down Walls By Uwe Rosler Release date: 15th December, 2013 Publisher: Trinity Mirror Sport List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.55 You Save: £5.44 (32%) Buy Now

Bill Shankly’s memorable take on the game will never strike a chord with Uwe Rosler. The iconic Liverpool manager stated: “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” Diagnosed in Norway with a massive tumour the size of a 12.5cm tennis ball in his chest, one of Manchester City’s favourite sons was given a week to live unless he started chemotherapy immediately. The German was warned he diced with death – and would lose to cancer – if he returned to his homeland for a second opinion. With a devoted wife, Cecilie, and sons aged six and three, Rosler had everything to look forward to in 2003. And with due respect to Shanks, football was not high on the list of priorities for a 34-year-old forward fighting for his life. As the Wigan Athletic manager reveals in an absorbing extract in his autobiography, Cecilie lived the nightmare too after doctors told her privately she was 95 per cent certain to become a widow that Easter. Firing in goals for Lillestrom before he fell ill, Rosler appreciates tomorrow holds no guarantees. One thing is certain, however. He is assured of a tumultuous reception when he takes his Wigan side to the Etihad Stadium in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup next month. City supporters, who fondly recall Rosler scored 64 goals in 176 games in the nineties, helped him through his darkest hours. A cult hero in the blue half of Manchester, where T-shirts light-heartedly proclaimed: “Rosler’s grandad bombed Old Trafford”, he recalls: “One day early on I was in the clinic bed and I got a call from a friend in England. He said: ‘Listen, Uwe, listen...’ and in the background I could hear the Manchester City fans singing my name loudly around the stadium. It was incredible and so uplifting to know that they were with me and willing me to get well. If I had a bond to the club before, it became unbreakable at that moment.” This noble book about a man who has faced down more than his fair share of adversity gives you the feeling he shares one of Shankly’s pet hates about football – the end of the season.