Versatility is often said to be a key attribute in the modern game and when Liverpool appointed Peter Brukner they gained more than just a top doctor.
Best-selling author, respected media pundit, manager of the Australia's Athletics team for the Sydney Olympics, pioneer in his field and internet sensation, there is much more to the affable Brukner than meets the eye.
He has crammed an awful lot into – and made a huge success of – his 58 years but now, after initially hesitating about leaving his life Down Under, he cannot wait to get started on revolutionising Liverpool's approach to sports science and sports medicine.
“It's not something I had planned and it came completely out of the blue,” said Brukner, who was appointed to his all-encompassing role in March. “I was contacted by Liverpool and initially I said come back in 18 months time.
“I've got four kids (Julia, Charlie, Joe and Bill) and my youngest still has 18 months left in school. My wife, Diana, and I vaguely thought about coming over here after that but never did anything specific about it as we had a very good life in Australia.
“But Liverpool were persistent and I guess what attracted me was the challenge, the opportunity to oversee the full medical outfit rather than just being the team doctor. I've always felt that the English Premier League was just a little bit behind in its approach.
“By that I mean injury management and injury prevention. It's something I had picked up from the guys at the Socceroos; the reason they always enjoyed coming back was because they knew they were going to get some good treatment.”
Before accepting Liverpool's offer, Brukner had been the Australian football team's doctor, a role he started in 2006 and ended after the recent World Cup; former Reds winger Harry Kewell is one of many who sing his praises.
“I always felt that I would love to get my hands on a Premier League club and I thought I would be able to make a difference,” Brukner continued. “If I didn't think I could make a difference, I wouldn't be here. It's all about the challenge.
“The other thing was the faith that the club had in me. Christian Purslow and, at the time, Rafa (Benitez) were very keen. I think it was quite a radical step to get someone in to completely overhaul the department.
“They had put a lot more financial resources into the sports medicine and sports science department.
“They have supported me in increasing the staff and improving the equipment. They were very supportive so, with that, I thought I've got the challenge, let's have a crack at it.”
Had he so desired, Brukner could have continued enjoying his life in Melbourne; that is where his Sports Medicine Clinic, the biggest of its kind in the world, is based – 60 people currently work there – and he also had an interesting side line in the media.
Aside from penning a weekly column about injuries in Australian Rules Football for the Melbourne Age, he was also a pundit at one time for the radio station ABC (the equivalent of the BBC) and had co-written a hugely successful book on sports medicine.
He has always had passion for, though, and was club doctor at the AFL sides Melbourne and Collingwood but his biggest and most demanding challenge, without doubt, was when he was placed in in charge of Australia's athletes at the millennium Olympics.
“It was good fun,” he recalls with a smile. “I actually had Cathy (Freeman's) gold medal in my pocket for about three hours after she had won the 400 metres. I've been lucky to enjoy a fantastic career and had some fantastic opportunities.”
This, clearly, is another. Liverpool endured a terrible time with fitness issues last season and, at one point, it seemed as if a week never went by without someone tweaking a hamstring, pulling a calf or stretching a groin.
Turning that trend is not going to happen overnight but Brukner, who has made a number of appointments to his department including the former Simply Red guitarist turned masseur Sylvan Richardson, is confident that this new campaign will see a fitter Liverpool squad.
“There are two aspects to it,” he explained. “We will be judged by the success of the team as well. But specifically our performance indicators are the number of what we regard as preventable injuries, soft tissue ones like hamstrings and groins.
“If someone comes along, kicks a player in the shin and breaks their leg, there's nothing we can do about that! But we believe that with proper conditioning we can reduce the number of muscle injuries and other such problems.
“Maybe it is going to take a year or two to get everything in place that we really want to but ultimately that is the aim. Everything has been great so far and everyone has been incredibly welcoming. We have changed a lot of things and people have been very accepting of that change.
“I've brought a lot of new staff in like the head of fitness Darren Burgess, who was with me at the Socceroos, and head physiotherapist Phil Coles. A lot of people had left with Rafa so that gave us an opportunity to bring in some high quality staff.
“We've got a fantastic group of people here and one of the big qualities is that they all work well together. The medical and fitness department have got to be a team within a team – all you need is one person who is doing it for other reasons and it can go wrong.
“We've all got to communicate really well, so we meet every morning and then I will go and tell the manager what is going on. It's going to be good.”
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