After an early start this morning, I left Sea Cliff & headed into New York City to change trains & head out to Montclaire State University, the current training ground of the New York Red Bulls football team. I had been kindly invited to visit by the manager, Hans Backe, formerly of Manchester City & Notts County. Hans has been in New York about a year & a half, arriving at the club around the same time as Barcelona & Arsenal legend Thierry Henry.

I arrived, luggage in tow & was warmly welcomed by Hans & the staff just in time for training to start. There was even a familiar face in attendance, with Teemu Tainio , now plying his trade for the Red Bulls after an extensive career in English football. I worked with Teemu during my brief time with Tottenham Hostspur back in 2005.

Jamie Murphy, formerly a physiotherapist at Bolton, Newcastle & Manchester City is now head of the performance department here & we had chance to have a good chat after lunch. Jamie is currently unable to treat hands on whilst he sits his physiotherapy accreditation in the USA & is taking the time to organise the structure of the department he has inherited. We spent a lot of time discussing approaches to hernia management & rehabilitation, hamstring rehabilitation programmes & the treatment of problematic tendinopathies.

All in all a really interesting afternoon & well worth the early start. Tonight I spend the evening with my relatives in Princeton, Fred & Gretel (something I always really look forward to), before my flight down to New Orleans in the morning. Now I can look forward to the NATA Conference & catching up with a few old friends as well as two of my business partners, Stephen Mutch & Mike Ferrara.