Physio back at United

NEWCASTLE United have appointed James Haycock as the club’s new senior physiotherapist 20 years after he first started working at the Magpies’ academy.

There have been a number of changes behind the scenes at Newcastle in the last year or so following the departures of first-team physio Michael Harding, soft tissue specialist Wayne Farrage and head of sports science Jamie Harley.

Newcastle have since brought in Haycock from Spurs and Callum Walsh from Huddersfield Town as the club’s new physio and head of sports science respectively.

As well as working at Newcastle, The Chronicle understands that Haycock will continue in his role as senior men’s team physio with the Football Association of Wales (FAW), which is a position he has held since 2017.

Haycock started his career at Newcastle’s academy in 2001 after previously impressing on an elective placement as part of his physiotherapy degree at Teesside University.

Haycock cut his teeth at the club before taking up a role with the FA as the futsal team’s physio in 2005.

Haycock returned to club football as head of medical at Hartlepool United in 2006 and spent six-and-ahalf years at Victoria Park while also working as a consultant physio with the English Institute of Sport in Gateshead.

Haycock then landed a role as Huddersfield’s head of first-team medical in 2012 before he left to take up a position as Arsenal’s firstteam physio three years later.

At Arsenal, Haycock was mainly responsible for the treatment and management of injured players under Arsene Wenger.

Haycock worked closely with Danny Welbeck, for example, in 2016, after the forward was sidelined for 10 months with a serious knee injury.

Haycock also treated the firstteam squad as a whole before they went out to train every day and the physio was on the bench for Arsenal’s FA Cup win against Chelsea at Wembley in 2017.

Wenger’s exit a year later led to a host of further departures behind the scenes, following a shake up at all levels, and Haycock later moved across the divide to Spurs, where he worked as a senior physio.

Now, with the help of head physio Derek Wright, Haycock has become acquainted with a new set of players at Newcastle.

The new arrival will be keeping a particularly close eye on Callum Wilson, Jonjo Shelvey, Paul Dummett and Martin Dubravka as the quartet gear up to return to action in the coming weeks.

Haycock’s appointment comes little more than a year after Bruce launched an investigation into the number of injuries his side suffered during his first season at the club.

Although Newcastle were down on soft tissue injuries, in 2019-20, Bruce admitted his players were having to adjust to a different style of training.

“All the sport scientists, doctors and nutritionists, we have analysed what we do,” he said last September.

“To be fair, we do ask them to work hard in training with a certain intensity, which has changed over the last 12 months. A new manager has different philosophies and a different way of training.

“Most of our injuries happen in games and the big ones, which a lot of people missed out on with this, just happened in a match and were impact. There’s not much you can do about that.”