There's no mistaking Norman Whiteside as he answers the door at his Altrincham home. The distinctive Belfast accent stands out as it did when he flew across the Irish Sea for the first time at the age of 12, and the limp as he climbs the stairs reveals the legacy of a distinguished career cut short by 13 operations.
"I'll always have a bad knee, it's just a matter of when I can get a new one," he jokes, without any bitterness. "I don't know how long it will last and I'm just waiting for the day when it finally goes. You certainly won't see me playing in the Masters!"
The human anatomy has, perhaps unsurprisingly, become something of a specialist subject for Whiteside. At the age of 38 the former Northern Ireland international is already 11 years into his retirement from professional football after numerous injury problems forced him to bow to the inevitable.
But self-pity is not in Whiteside's nature, and what seems to most people like a cruel injustice has never left the Irishman with any feeling of regret. "It was a bad day giving up football," he says. "You mope around for a couple of weeks, there are tears, and you try to consider what you're going to do. But I knew that I couldn't carry on. I just thought 'I've got to do something about this'."
Whiteside took the decision to return to school in 1991 and begin a long stretch of academic training which now qualifies him as a podiatrist, diagnosing and treating physical abnormalities from the hip to the big toe.
The belated stretch of education, taking him to both Salford and Manchester Universities, earned the former Manchester United and Everton midfielder GCSEs and A-Levels, and a BSc Honours degree in podiatry. It was, in every way, the perfect career choice for a man who spent hours in the treatment room at Old Trafford and knew more than most of his fellow professionals about the workings of his own body.
"I had that many injuries during my career that I got very friendly with Jim McGregor, who was the physio at Manchester United," recalls Whiteside. "I was in the medical room so often that I started to ask him about his job, and he would give me the names of muscles to go home and learn. I'd come in the next day and say 'the rectus femoris, that's the big muscle in your thigh'.
"From that stage I started to get interested in the anatomy, and Jim began explaining about physio techniques, such as dealing with ankle injuries. After I retired I decided to go back to school to do what I would call O-Levels and A-levels, and tried to get into university.
"I'd wanted to be a physio from the beginning but I didn't have the qualifications. However, I went on day release to Salford University and had a look at their podiatry course. I was really taken by it and decided to apply."
The challenge of academic work brought with it an unusual level of pressure - 'a million people watching you play football was never a problem for me, but standing with a scalpel and a teacher looking over your shoulder is a different matter' - but Whiteside persevered despite the prospect of returning to school with children half his age.
"Imagine how funny it is going into a physics class with 16 and 17-year-olds! They were all looking at me and saying 'is it or is it not Norman Whiteside?', and putting your hand up to come out with Archimedes' principles wasn't easy.
"But through school and university I made a second career for myself at the age of 32. I wouldn't say it was more pleasing than scoring the winning goal in a cup final, or captaining your club and country, but I took a huge amount of satisfaction from doing something I never thought I was capable of."
The importance of podiatry in football encouraged the PFA to employ Whiteside after he qualified, and the former Northern International now provides a free service to numerous Football League clubs throughout England. Whiteside's work focuses largely on youth team players, rectifying problems such as shin splints and flat feet, and creates an essential option for clubs who cannot afford the cost of employing independent podiatrists.
"It's an important role, and that's why I'm so pleased that the PFA backed me up," says Whiteside. "So often I see kids with shin splints, and by simply putting insoles into their boots I can solve the problem. The clubs that need me are the ones that can't afford to have their own podiatrists, and because I'm employed by the PFA, they receive a free-of-charge service. Manchester United, for example, are one of the clubs that don't use me!"
Up until two years ago, mementoes from his time with United and Northern Ireland - now on show at Old Trafford - were stored in black bin liners in his attic. "I think if you ask most footballers, they probably say the same," he says. "I was never one for showing off all my stuff around the house, and the attic was just somewhere to store it all.
"But there are some nice jerseys there, from the likes of Platini and Rummenigge, and other bits and pieces. "In terms of what happened to me, I'd rather not take any negatives from my career because there were positive sides. I could have gone on until I was 34, but it wasn't to be, and I still had ten years at the top level.
"I've no need to be bitter. I played in three Wembley finals and had 13 operations. I can look back and say I had an alright career."
* Article reproduced by kind permission of Players' Club - the official magazine of the PFA.
