Liverpool Have Terrible Doctors (Or Just Plain Terrible Luck)

Harry Kewell in a familiar pose

Apropos of nothing, Harry Kewell’s agent has popped up to remind us that yes, Harry Kewell exists and yes again, Harry Kewell’s time at Liverpool FC is best left undescribed. The oft-hobbled Australian winger did enjoy the occasional good game at Anfield and even managed to start that magical night in Istanbul (of course, he’d been long subbed off before all the magic started happening), though his long-serving agent, Bernie Mandic, is more than willing to go on record with his opinions as to why Kewell’s time on Merseyside was so, well, rubbish.

It’s the team doctors, of course!

And here’s me thinking that it’d be yet another talking head piling on Rafa Benitez for something he’d done to tear that team apart.

Speaking after Harry received solid treatment in Australia for yet another groin injury — initially thought to be a season-ending complaint, the treatment down under should see him back in Galatasaray’s squad in 2-3 weeks — Mandic took the opportunity to drag Liverpool and Benitez into a discussion they probably really don’t feel like having.

Quotes Mandic on Kewell’s treatment down under: “The reason he gets treated out here now is because we have the best medical staff in the world. He lost three and a half years of his career at Liverpool because the guys over there in England had, quite literally, no idea what they were talking about. You have to wonder what they’re doing over there. Perhaps they’re trying to protect their reputations, but they’re certainly not trying to protect their players. I think it’s a disgrace, as I think it was a disgrace the way Harry was treated. What goes around comes around, and people are now wondering, ‘How has he recovered like that?’ when everyone in England thought he was a broken toy.”

Mandic deftly links Torres’ continued knee injuries (most of which, oddly enough, are aggravated while training or playing meaningless friendlies with the Spanish national team) with Kewell’s injury plague, showing why he really earns the big ducats repping the big stars.

Claiming that Rafa has been in touch with Mandic, hoping for a connect to those A-list Aussie doctors, the agent continued his probe: “We had Rafa Benítez call him the other night inquiring who these guys were because Fernando Torres has got such major problems now. Then we’ve had Jonathan Woodgate’s physio, Dave Hancock, who used to work at Chelsea and before that worked with Harry and Jonathan at Leeds, inquiring about Jonathan, who is apparently almost unfixable. Look at Liverpool. Why is it that over so many recent years, usually around November, lots of their key players are injured? It’s always soft-tissue injuries. How come other clubs, like Arsenal, don’t have that sort of a dilemma? And why do their players recover quicker? There’s logical reasons for all of this.”

For all the bluster, Mandic is probably right in that Liverpool’s medical staff might not be as good as, say, Arsenal’s, though let’s not forget the absurd state-of-the-art nature of Arsene Wenger’s legacy to the club: that sweet training ground complex and medical facility. It’s far better than anything currently in use by any other club, yet ironically enough, the Gunners seem to struggle with injuries more than any other team.

But I digress. Maybe Liverpool’s problem with injuries isn’t the doctor’s fault, but the fact that the squad is so reliant on those two or three players that they’re forever needed even when not fully fit. I guess we can blame Rafa Benitez for that, ultimately, though that still doesn’t explain Bernie Mandic’s bizarre decision to call out Kewell’s former team. Perhaps Kewell is in the market for another team soon, and those awful Anfield years need further explanation? Whatever the reason, at least he’s not putting together a glossy brochure.