Paul Agnew's Saturday Interview turns the spotlight on Blackburn and England physio Alan Smith

THE QUEEN, the Prime Minister - the England soccer physiotherapist.

Sounds like an after-dinner toast but, in all seriousness, there is a common link. All are jobs for which you cannot apply. Fact.

You become Queen by birthright (providing you are female). Prime Minister by default and national team physio by invitation!

Such an invitation fell the way of Alan Smith. Three seasons back he was approached by then supremo Terry Venables and asked if he fancied it.

Bit like asking all assembled in the queue at your local newsagents tonight if they would like advance knowledge of the ball numbers for the National Lottery.

Accurate analogy too for Alan wears the cheesy grin of a winner - someone for whom life has delivered the ultimate prize.

"Being the England physio is fantastic," says Alan, who for the past two years and more has also spent much of his working life doing what good physios do under the employ of Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

"Doesn't get much better than that - I am lucky and I appreciate what's happened."

Alan has lived out all of the dreams he had as a young apprentice footballer with his home town Middlesbrough, without actually playing the game.

Wait. Middlesbrough - isn't he a Yorkshireman I hear you query? Well, when Alan was born 48 years ago, Middlesbrough was in White Rose land.

He was finished as a player at 17. Nearly as remarkable, he was up and running as a professional physio with Rotherham United at 22.

The early story is best told in his words...

"I broke my leg twice inside a year with Boro - both times the same leg and both times in two places. My career was over before it had started and my playing experience extended only to the Northern Intermediate League.

"It was a shattering experience, but I was determined to stay involved in the game.

"The choices revolved around administration or coaching, secretarial or physiotherapy. I chose the physio route and was chartered just over three years later."

He applied - yes, he had to apply in those days - for a vacancy at lowly Rotherham (much else has changed in the past 25 years or so, but the words lowly and Rotherham still sit perfectly together) - and was given the chance by Jimmy McAnearney.

Jimmy didn't mind that all his senior pros were older than the new physio and although Alan admits now it was an ordeal: More of an ordeal when I look back than I remember feeling at the time. I just got in there and got on with it.

"Rotherham 1972 to Blackburn 1997 - well, it's worlds apart isn't it? But, then again, things have travelled fast in our profession.

"It's only down to experience gained at places like Millmoor that eventually enabled me to qualify for better things later on."

Five years at Rotherham and it was time to get the coal dust out of his throat at the seaside.

Alan Brown took him to Bloomfield Road and after six years with Blackpool he was invited to join Sheffield Wednesday by Howard Wilkinson. His work with Rovers kicked off under Ray Harford and has increased, in terms of hours, from a couple of days a week to something like three to four. He is now accepted as the top man.

When Fred Street retired and England needed someone new to carry the sponge bag and work the electra-massage equipment, Alan was first choice.

"The England doctor made the first approach. I suppose to sound me out, and then I got a call from Terry Venables.

"It was unbelievable - not every day someone asks you to take up the job you've always wanted. I remember the conversation well and felt like punching the air when I put the receiver down.

"And it has turned out every bit as good, as challenging and rewarding as I had hoped. I was involved for Euro '96 and if that wasn't enough I am now looking forward to the World Cup itself."

But, come on, it can't be glory, glory all the way - what about the times when a key player is injured and the manager is screaming for him to be fit for the next match - or else!

"Doesn't happen much like that to be honest. The idea is to build relationships between players, managers and coaches - they need to know that you are doing everything within your power to get the right result."

Okay then, what about the times when you have to tell a player he's finished: "That's the worst part of football life, but it usually falls to the manager to see the player." Alan played a major role in the re-building of Alan Shearer during his Rovers days - he is now involved again as the Newcastle and England star attempts to recover from another massive injury setback.

"There's pressure, of course there's pressure and Alan is a classic example - a star player eager to return and a club and a country just as eager for him to get back playing.

"I am in touch with him and he is due to visit me shortly to discuss the next stage of his rehabilitation.

"When I joined Rovers one of the first tasks was to assist Jason Wilcox and then we've had other major cases with Graeme Le Saux, Chris Coleman and John Filan."

Alan Smith knows his subject back to front, loves his work and likes to keep busy - his timetable makes you puff and pant just listening to it.

But I can think of a couple of top profile managers, surnames starting with H, who would much rather he was left in thumb-twiddling mode, bored out of his skin with nothing much to do for the foreseeable future. ...

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.