Ben Tozer, a defender for Wrexham, won the championship for the North Wales team as they were relegated to League Two, but he experienced pain off the field during a trying summer.
Ben Tozer of Wrexham has spoken out about his grief when his father passed away abruptly from leukemia only a few months after the team was promoted back to the EFL.
After 15 years away, the Red Dragons won the National League championship last season under the guidance of the ex-Newcastle United defender, securing their position in League Two. Tozer, though, had a sneaking suspicion that something was wrong with his father despite the joyous scenes of celebration as they lifted the championship.
The Wrexham captain had detected a pattern in the star’s behavior even though his father had traveled to North Wales to see his moment of glory. His father left the stadium early even after their 3-1 victory over Boreham Wood, which guaranteed their return to the EFL.
After learning that his father was avoiding him due to the affects of leukaemia, Tozer has recently stated that he now knows why. He mentioned in a BBC interview that he used to drive up to the games up here to watch them.
_”He was here the day we won the league, which was amazing for me. He’d come to the games but he’d always get off before I got out, which I found a bit of a red flag.
“He wasn’t well but I never got to see him and it was almost as if he was hiding from me, which now I know why. I went to a friend’s funeral at the end of last season and one of the guys my dad worked with said ‘I saw your dad and he didn’t quite seem the same.”_
The center-back mentioned that his father had previously expressed concerns about his health to his brother and wife and had promised to get himself checked out. To the horror of the family, he would eventually pass away just a few days after the sickness was discovered in July.
Due to his father’s abrupt decline, he had to go the 500 miles back to Plymouth to say goodbye to him in the hospital. Phil Parkinson, the manager of Wrexham, stepped in to make sure Tozer had a first-class ticket for the train ride down to Devon.
Later, when he was with his family, he would travel to the south coast, where he would be able to see his father “just before they switched everything off.” Before returning up north, he would spend one more day in Plymouth organizing his father’s possessions at his home.
After that, Tozer would travel to the United States with his colleagues to play against teams like Chelsea and Manchester United. He continued, “I felt ‘okay I’ve got a job to do, I’ve got to do this, crack on,’ which is how I would describe my state of mind at the time.
“I was so busy that I didn’t even give it a thought. One thing led to the next. What would I do if I were at home, I guess? Simply cry? So I might as well get going.
