Life's a Ball': Ian Liversedge: The Highs and Lows of a Football Physio

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After a tempestuous year working at Burnley, Lake completed his Chartered Physiotherapy course at Salford University and went onto serve Altrincham, Oldham and Macclesfield Town. contracts don’t necessarily follow the managers and are organised separately. In fact, they are relatively protected. To recall, Carneiro, and head physiotherapist Jon Fearn, went onto the field to treat the injured Eden Hazard when twice summoned on by referee Michael Oliver. I left in 2008, the full-time staff consisted of two physiotherapists, one doctor, two masseurs, one fitness coach, one osteopath, one travel and equipment manager and two kit men. He was later cleared at an FA hearing of being verbally abusive to her in his native Portuguese language.

We haven’t quite reached the end of the club season and again we see mass culls of staff effecting people’s livelihoods. Every now and again we get the bolt out the blue departures when physios, like managers, are dispensed with. I started at Arsenal in 1986, the full-time staff was the manager George Graham, the assistant manager Theo Foley and the kit man Tony Donnelly as well as myself. It just goes to show how ruthless and cut-throat the football industry can be behind the scenes, far away from the glitz, glamour and glut.

He was a special player. They were all good at that time, but Kevin was a cut above. He was also larger than life, a real character and easy to get on with.”

Fred Street was the England physio for 22 years, working with a succession of managers including Don Revie, Ron Greenwood, Sir Bobby Robson and Graham Taylor. was full, full-on. It’s like it is now in the Premier League, it’s a full-on job. Except the difference is, now, there’s three or four of them doing it, I was the only one doing it.” I worked with him again, when I was at Burnley and he came there for three months right at the end of his career. When Terry Venables was appointed England manager he agreed that long serving physios Fred Street and Norman Medhurst had done a very good job and were both utterly dedicated to England, but in this department, it was time for a change. “We needed a new dash of enthusiasm and fresh ideas.”Joe Royle was set to make a substitution and bring Andy Ritchie on but whilst waiting for the ball to go out of play Neil Pointon popped up to give them the lead in front of 56,000 fans before Graeme Sharp missed a glorious chance go two up. In the end, Mark Hughes wiped it out with a spectacular volley a minute or so from the end of extra time. In football you work as part of a team, as Dave Butler described in 1996: “I love the day-to-day involvement with the players, the atmosphere, the humour and camaraderie. But if things change for whatever reason, you can’t blend in for whatever reason, you’re finished.” led to the chairman of FIFA‘s medical committee, Michel D’Hooghe, setting up a sub-committee to draw up a new code of ethics for managers and team doctors.Â

Ian Liversedge – who wrote the book ‘Life’s A Ball: Highs and Lows of a Football Physio’ – describes in his own experiences on one chapter. He recounts: “I was just about to wipe the floor with the kitchen staff when I heard a familiar voice coming from the other side of the room. When then-Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho became embroiled in an internal row with club doctor Eva Carneiro in the club’s first game of the 2015-16 season, played out in front of millions of television viewers, it had repercussions for the whole football industry. He said: “I went in July 1982 to Newcastle and I started on the Tuesday and they said, ‘Bring your passport because we’re going to Madeira on a pre-season tour on Friday.’Terry McDermott plays a big part in this section. They two were bosom buddies. Or is that boozing buddies? the larger clubs with a larger medical team, physios tend to be quite protected. There will be a head of department who will usually be either a doctor or physiotherapist and they will fall under the control of the board of directors.

One chapter, ‘Out on the Toon’ begins with the sentence: “I was at Newcastle when I developed my passion for having a good time with the booze and partying.” Chris Waddle and Peter Beardsley, two of the best I have seen, didn’t hang around much longer and Gazza left as well. It was a shame. I love Newcastle United. Physio Ian Liversedge says he is looking forward to the challenge of establishing a medical set-up" [ permanent dead link], Lancashire Evening Telegraph, 7 June 2004

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He adds: “I have worked with managers who see injured players as no more than malingerers and believe they are injured on purpose. manager informed me I was not to attend the training ground when the players were in for training until after 2pm,” he said. Fred gives a good example of how he had to use his judgement during a game between England and Yugoslavia when Steve Hodge and Glenn Hoddle clashed heads, with manager Bobby Robson trusting his judgement. Yeah, although he was greeted with Beatlemania with regards to Kevin when he we returned to Newcastle airport. It would be fair to say that my signing didn’t cause as much of a stir.” He has taken over physiotherapy duties from Lee Martin, who is leaving by mutual consent and is set to run his own practice.