ENGLAND World Cup winning soccer hero Alan Ball escaped a driving ban after admitting speeding.

The 57-year-old Farnworth-born former Manchester City and Portsmouth manager told magistrates he needed his licence to take his wife to hospital for treatment for cancer.

Magistrates in Colchester, Essex, heard that the ex Farnworth Grammar School pupil, of Warsash, Hants, was doing 43mph in a 30mph limit in a Mercedes, in Danbury, near Maldon, Essex, in April.

He was fined £60 after magistrates heard his wife Lesley's cancer may have returned.