Saturday, August 29, 2009

Manchester United Block Liverpool Physiotherapist’s England Move

Manchester United have blocked the proposed promotion of a Liverpool physiotherapist to work with the England team in a move that demonstrates the distrust that exists between the country’s top clubs.

Dave Galley, who has more than 25 years’ experience working as a football physiotherapist, had expected to be part of the England medical staff for the friendly against Slovenia on September 5 and the World Cup qualifier with Croatia four days later. But the intervention of David Gill, the Manchester United chief executive and FA board member, led to Galley reverting to his previous role with the England Under-21 squad. Liverpool are understood to be far from impressed with the situation.

Gill, referring to a policy introduced by the FA last year designed to ensure that only independent medical staff are appointed to work with the national team, raised concerns about a rival club’s physiotherapist having access to valuable information about the fitness of players from other team’s.

The FA has previously taken steps to ensure that such situations cannot arise, with the appointment of Gary Lewin as England’s full-time physiotherapist in August last year, followed by Ian Beasley becoming full-time doctor four months later. Both had previously worked for the FA on a part-time basis with their regular employment being provided by Arsenal.

This protocol led Gill to question the wisdom of the appointment of Galley to work with Fabio Capello’s squad and the FA backed his opinion. “Dave has reverted back to the Under-21s after one game.” said an FA spokesman. “There should be no questions against his professionalism, We must be clear that there is an agreed board policy that has nothing to do with Manchester United that the medical staff should be independent.

“Franco Baldini (Capello’s general manager) and Rafael Benítez (the Liverpool manager) discussed the matter yesterday and it was explained we wanted to see Dave working with the team in the friendly this month. We refute any suggestion that we have been pressurised by Manchester United.”

No comments: