A SMALL village is set to welcome a physiotherapy clinic run by the brains behind the Commonwealth Games medical facilities.

Lee Barker, from Grimsargh, was picked to head the Games' Primary Care Working Group, looking into the best way to care for injured athletes.

Now Lee, who even had the power to stop athletes taking part in the Games if he felt they were too badly hurt, is set to start his own practice.

Lee, 33, said: "We set it up from scratch and it was a great experience to be involved in something like that."

Lee, who works part time at the Beaumont Hospital, Bolton, and the team of medical volunteers spent 18 months of their spare time preparing the Commonwealth Games village medical centre.

Once it was up and running it was up to Lee to decide everything from what medical equipment was needed to how many staff should be brought in.

Then Lee and his team treated any athletes from a squad that didn't have their own physiotherapist, including the Bahamas and Ghana.

He said: "It was a fantastic atmosphere in the atheletes' village and I saw Paula Ratcliffe and Jonathan Edwards."

Lee even got to speak to Prince Philip when he visited the site with Her Majesty the Queen for an inspection.

He said: "I was lucky one day. The Queen was visiting, I got in line and spoke to Prince Philip. He asked me what my position was and asked whether I had been busy.

Lee will start the Alderbank Physiotherapy and Sports Injury Clinic on Preston Road in Grimsargh with his wife Victoria, who worked for the NHS. The couple even sold their last house to pay for the new centre which will open on September 2.