Experienced Town midfielder Jonathan Douglas has paid tribute to the physio who rescued his career and welcomes the opportunity to say a personal thank-you at Blackburn tomorrow.
Former Manchester United physio Dave Fevre is the man who supervised Douglas’s rehabilitation after he suffered the injury footballers dread not long after he left school and his hometown club Monaghan United in Ireland and relocated to Lancashire to kick off his career in the professional game.
Douglas said: "I was out for about 10 months when I ruptured my cruciate and back then it was like the end of the world if you did that. But I had a physio in Dave who looked after me every single day and dragged me through some bad times whenever I was down.
"He’s still there so it will be nice to see him again. I owe him a great deal for the career I’ve had. It was a difficult time because I was over there with another five or six Irish lads and they were playing week in, week out, while I was stuck in the gym doing things like rowing and swimming. I wasn’t really born to do that — I’m not a great swimmer.
"The physio was great with me. If I was really down he’d say ‘Go home to Ireland for a few days then come back and be ready to go again’. I owe him a lot and it will be good to see him on Saturday. I have kept in touch with him and I think this is his last year at Blackburn.
"I’ve got an invitation to his leaving do — he’s going into a new venture — but unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to go because I think I have a game that night. When times were tough Dave was the man who got me through them, along with my family of course.
"When I was coming through Craig Short was a senior player at the club and he was also very good to me. When he picked up the odd injury here and there we would do our rehab together.
"When he could see I was a wee bit down he would help me get through it as well. I was only 18 or 19 at the time, living away from home, and it was a difficult time.
"I was 16 when I moved over from Ireland to join Blackburn and I had some great times there. It was a great club to be at with a lot of good coaches for young lads to come in and train. I enjoyed my time there.”
Town go to Ewood Park without a win or even a goal in their last four league games so Douglas knows the importance of the fixture. But he stressed: "We don’t need to put on a show, we just need the three points and I don’t care how they come.
"If the ball hits one of the lads’ knees and goes in I don’t care. We need to get three points as quickly as possible and hopefully it will be on Saturday.”