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

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But as Sir Alex Ferguson once queried, is it merely about flexing your masculinity by using your status to wield power and wring sweeping changes? 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.

It was whilst speaking to a friend of mine in Tranmere Rovers Physio Ian Liversedge who has seen service at Newcastle United, Oldham Athletic, Burnley, Fleetwood Town and Accrington Stanley, to name some of his former clubs.IAN LIVERSEDGE was part of the new-look Town management team leading the players through their first pre-season training session today.

Busy time of year for Liversedge" [ permanent dead link], Lancashire Evening Telegraph, 21 December 2002 Perhaps the final words should go to former Manchester City and England under-21 midfielder Paul Lake, who saw his promising playing career effectively ended at the age of 21 by a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, which would see him only play four further games. He said; ‘Put your house up for sale on Monday and I’ll see you at St James’ Park 9am on Tuesday and we’ll get started. Oh, and bring your passport because we are going to Madeira next weekend for a pre-season tour.’ 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.

Everything is different now with diet and fitness regimes, Arsene Wenger changed it but your eyes still tell you whether a player is ready for it for or not. We must also remember it is still a game, not a science. then this has increased further with an extra coach, three more fitness coaches, two additional physiotherapists, an extra masseur, a nutritionist, two data analysts and a player liaison officer.” It will be a footnote, no more than that, but the relatively unknown Merseysider just so happens to have made a significant contribution during one of the most interesting periods at St James’ Park. 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.

the one hand the team doctors have to abide by the Hippocratic Oath and intervene when a player is in medical need, but it also important to take account of the fact they work as part of a group under the coach,” it said.

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The two years Liversedge spent at Newcastle ended with the club winning promotion to the old First Division, the first Keegan era if you will.

Towards the end of the book he describes meeting old friends from football when the conversation rarely touches on the game but is more about “the scrapes” they shared. But drinking exploits are the sort of tales that can only have been funny to those taking part and possibly not even then. Fans who followed Oldham in the period he describes might feel slightly short changed to find that many at the club followed a motto Liversedge characterises as “win or loose, have a booze”. 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.’ Does the name ring a bell? It might to supporters of a certain vintage whose Mastermind speciality subject is Newcastle United of the early 1980s. 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. Liversedge was/is a physio who in the summer of 1982 went for a job at Newcastle United, more in hope than expectation.Life’s a Ball is good fun, unpretentious and gives the reader a gossipy insight into what goes on at a football club. built this, the manager is required to lubricate the machinery to ensure that it runs smoothly in all conditions A leader who arrives in a big club setting or inherits a big club role, needs to curb his impulse to display his manhood.”