Physio Mick Rathbone recalls how he often ended up as the butt of the players' jokes during his time at Everton
Wayne Rooney is treated by Mick Rathbone during Everton's game against Middlesbrough at Goodison Park on March 27, 2004
Wayne Rooney is treated by Mick Rathbone during Everton's game against Middlesbrough at Goodison Park on March 27, 2004
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Physio Mick ‘Baz’ Rathbone loved his time at Everton – even if he was often the butt of the players’ jokes.
Rathbone, who is currently helping out at Harrogate Town on maternity cover in what he believes is his 11th posting in the past three years after another thwarted scheme to retire, recently entertained the League Two outfit’s squad with his ‘House of Bamboo’ dance, but he reckons that given that stakes are so high, a more serious streak now prevails among Premier League clubs. That wasn’t the case during the first of his two spells with the Blues between 2002-2010 though when he regularly found himself on the receiving end of some cutting banter.
Appearing as a guest on the Royal Blue podcast to coincide with the publication of his new book The Smell Of Football 3, the 66-year-old, nicknamed ‘Baz’ after actor Basil Rathbone, who was famous for playing Sherlock Holmes, revealed how Duncan Ferguson had dubbed him “Bob the f*****g builder,” when turning up in a blue and yellow shirt on his first day, only to win the giant Scottish centre-forward around with his good humour, but the Brummie later came in for some more flak after sporting a similar garment.
Rathbone told the ECHO: “I had another check shirt. It was an Armani shirt and I wore it one day and got changed in my little office at Bellefield, in a Portakabin.
“I had my kit on and Sue on who worked on the desk said: ‘Baz, Baz, phone, in reception.’ I went over to the reception, but it wasn’t for me, so I just shrugged.
“I went back into the medical room and Watto (Steve Watson) had gone to the considerable trouble of laying a table, with candles plus knives and forks, using my check shirt as the tablecloth. He said: ‘Right Baz – don’t wear that shirt again.’
“Anyway, I let it go for a few months, but then I thought: ‘I’m wearing it, it cost me a load of money.’ So, I wore it one day, got away with it and got changed.
“It was a really torrentially wet day, pouring down with rain. The lads were warming up down the bottom, and I’ve got Gary Naysmith doing some hard running with me.
“We’d done about 10 lung-busting runs. Gary goes: ‘Is that me now, pal? Am I done?’
“I told him: ‘Yes, that’s you done for today.’ He goes: ‘Right....’ and takes his Everton tracksuit top off, he’s got my check shirt on underneath and he slides through all the mud while wearing it.
“Watto just turns to me and says: ‘Told you not to wear it again!’”
Click here to listen to Mick Rathbone's Royal Blue podcast episode in full and here to order your copy of The Smell Of Football 3.