ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER CRISIS

A NEW crisis at the Seaside this week. After losing our manager, getting shot of eight loan players and suffering a humiliating FA Cup defeat by Torquay, we now have a full-blown injury crisis.

I'm out for months with knee ligament problems; Keith Southern has damaged his ankle ligaments; Stephen Crainey came back after eight months out this week but lasted only 10 minutes; skipper Rob Edwards has hamstring problems; and, to cap it all, our new loan star from Liverpool, Krisztian Nemeth, broke his cheekbone 15 minutes into his debut. Well, at least I won't be lonely in the treatment room.

Now is the time a physio earns his money. Thanks to my club-hopping career, I've worked with many different physios but they all share one characteristic - they are slave-drivers!

Fans and friends are often under the impression that if you're injured then you sit around doing nothing. Wrong! An injured player must be in earlier than everyone else and at some clubs the player doesn't leave till late in the afternoon - a long time for us 'pampered' footballers!

My physio at Stockport County Roger Wylde was an absolute fitness fanatic and seemed to treat me as a special project.

Positives

We used to meet on a Saturday morning in the Derbyshire hills and go running for hours. He would even stop at trees and do chin-ups on low branches.

Dave Hancock, who was the physio when I was at Blackburn, loved rugby, so I would be forever charging into these massive pads or having to bounce up when he smashed me with them during my rehab.

The Blackpool physio, Phil Horner, has an unhealthy obsession with the rowing machine. He makes us do 10,000 metres in a certain time, which is not easy on the most uncomfortable seat in the world!

To be honest, I'd much rather be in full training because it's a good deal easier.

I did some commentary on our games this week for Radio Lancashire. It was easy on Saturday when we battered Birmingham but trying to come up with some positives during a 3-0 home defeat to QPR was tough.

We drew with an average QPR side earlier in the season but this time they were class. Some of their players were telling me how good Paolo Sousa is and, from watching their warm-up in which every player had a ball, you could see the emphasis was getting as many touches as they could and being comfortable in possession.

That certainly showed in their play. This sort of thing is the reason why on the international stage our foreign opponents look so composed on the ball while it's often like a hot potato for Englands players.

We were cheered up by Claus Jorgensen bringing in a round of chocolate muffins to apologise for getting sent off against Birmingham. However, having seen the TV replay, it should have been Lee Bowyer sending Claus the cakes.

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