The Devil Within

If ever a rugby league player was the heart and soul of a club, it is Salford City Reds’ talismanic hooker Malcolm Alker. A man who twice turned down big money moves - including one to Australia’s NRL - was fired by an all-consuming determination to make the original Red Devils a major force in Super League. Yet that dream blew up in his face when a tumultuous and bitter exit from the club plunged him into depression and tainted many of the memories he held dear.

In The Devil Within, an autobiography by turns astonishing and amusing, Alker reveals all about his controversial departure from the Willows; his feelings
about those he left behind; the alcohol-fuelled brawl in America that cost him the captaincy; and his many highs and lows as a player, skipper and assistant coach.

A battler known for his integrity on and off the field, Alker also lifts the lid on his own experiences with drugs - legal, social and Human Growth Hormone; the prescription drug abuse that he insists is blighting rugby league; and dalliances with illegal betting. With a fight - physical or metaphorical - on almost every page, The Devil Within is a frank and brutally honest confessional of a life on league’s front line.