Boots 'n' All visited former Saint Joey Hayes who, after a fine career, has turned his hand to physiotherapy.
Hayes helping Saints in another way
After a successful rugby league career Joey Hayes is back at his old club St Helens, though this time he is keeping Saints players fit, rather than running in the tries.
The former Saints and Great Britain wing is the club physiotherapist and told Boots 'n' All what his new role involves.
"The old school physios looked for ways to treat an injury," he said. "Nowadays we try to look for the route cause of a problem instead to try and stop it from happening again.
"But it's not only treatment and training techniques. We look at ground surfaces, footwear, what the players are wearing for training and how the lads hydrate themselves."
A prime example is Saints' use of a podiatrist, who, during pre-season, made some interesting assessments of the players' feet.
"The podiatrist got them to stand on monitors," explained Hayes. "They stood still and then started walking and we took scans to show the centre of gravity and the pressure points on the feet.
"The aim is to make some alterations to the way they are bearing weight so as to hopefully limit their injuries through the season."
Good old days
The result is tailor-made inner soles for every player - techniques far advanced from Hayes' day as a player in the dawning era of Super League.
"It was an amazing time," Hayes recalled. "The team was in its ascendancy. It was just before the team became quite dominant for three or four years.
"Playing in the team then it was unbelievable. We had just made the switch to summer rugby and it was an enjoyable time to play.
"The move completely transformed the game. You can see it now how fast the game has become.
"I really enjoyed it at the time but unfortunately I had a few injuries and that kept me out."
However, as physio Hayes regularly finds himself in the thick of the action.
"I do get a bit carried away when the games are being played," he said.
"Sometimes when you run onto the pitch you get into the game and you have a bit of a flashback.
"You also get the best seat in the house to watch the game so sometimes you have to remember you are the physio and to watch for injuries and not the game!"
