Jim Whitley: What Happened Next?

Yet far from allowing his world to implode, the 32-year-old has re-invented himself as an all-singing, all-dancing stage star; having made his bow at Christmas as Nat King Cole, Whitley can now be seen treading the boards as Sammy Davis Jr in tribute act The Rat Pack’s Back.

“While football has been my first love, the arts have followed in tandem; I went to the same school – Bryn Alyn in Wrexham – as Robbie Savage and while he was always playing football, I spent some of my time in the school choir and I played the flute. Inevitably I would get some stick, invariably from Sav, but as I grew up and football came to the fore, my singing was reserved for a drunken night in front of the karaoke machine.

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