Cyrus Christie, the Fulham and Ireland full back, will never forget the times visiting his beloved uncle, the famous middleweight boxer Errol Christie at St Christopher’s hospice in south London, as cancer took its toll.

Errol was an inspiration to him, a man who fought bravely in the ring but also outside, standing up to racism, helping to steer young Coventry lads away from the temptations of gangland culture. Christie hated seeing this great man and sportsman so diminished at only 53. “He had over 100 tumours,” Christie recalls. “When I hugged him, I could feel them pushing out of his skin. One of them was the size of a tennis ball. My dad’s not emotional at all, probably the toughest guy I’ve ever met,