Cook makes apology call to Dr Onuoha

Cook resigned last week from his role at City (GETTY IMAGES)

Manchester City's outgoing chief executive Garry Cook has telephoned Dr Anthonia Onuoha to apologise for the email mocking her fight against cancer.

Cook called Dr Onuoha, the mother of defender Nedum, on Friday, from his base in Portland, Oregon. He had decided that to address the offence she took to the email personally, rather than deal with it in the statement issued in the notification of his decision to resign.

Dr Onuoha's reasons for waiting nearly 12 months before allowing the email communication between herself and Cook to be made public are one of the unanswered factors in the controversy which saw City's internal inquiry find for her and against Cook. As of Saturday evening, manager Roberto Mancini had yet to speak to Cook but has now addressed the issue for the first time. "I didn't know the situation. I read a newspaper three days ago and I'm very sorry for Onuoha's mum," he said. "But I'm also very sorry for Garry because I worked with him for 15 months."

Mancini admitted again, however, that his relationship with Cook was not always smooth. "Of course, sometimes we had some problems, but that is normal when you work closely with someone," he added.