Rod Thornley was a semi-professional footballer and younger brother of Manchester United’s Ben. He became a masseur at United, working with the first-team players, several of whom became close friends. The Athletic met him for a chat at his home near Altrincham, south Manchester, to hear his story.
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“I’m a Salford lad, from Eccles. My dad was a headmaster and my brother Ben was a couple of years older than me. From the age of 11 to 18 and his injury, I’d say Ben was arguably the best player for his age in England. He played centre midfield and always played a year above. He played with Ryan Giggs for Salford Boys when they won the schools cup. Ben found his position as a left winger at United and got even better. Fast, skilful, powerful, aggressive, two-footed — he was the best player in United’s 1992 Youth Cup winning side.
“My name was ‘Ben Thornley’s brother’ from the age of 12 to about 28. I was proud of him and we got on. His injury was awful. Rob Swire, the physio at United, always told me it was the worst he’d ever run onto a pitch to attend — and that includes Alan Smith’s at Anfield.
“I wasn’t as good as him. I wasn’t quick, but when I hit 17 I became rapid. I played non-League, mostly at Altrincham, where I was a striker for eight years. I scored 30 in my first 30 games there. Altrincham is a brilliant non-League club with a big history of being FA Cup giant killers. I had a chance to go professional with a few northern-based teams but it would have taken a lot to take me away from what I ended up doing.”
How did you start working at the club?
I was working as a lifeguard at a local leisure centre while playing non-League football. I knew a lot of the United players – Gary Neville was engaged to my sister at the time. United moved to the Carrington training ground in January 2000 and it had a swimming pool. You can see where this is going…
The club needed a lifeguard to be legally covered. I got a call from the club and agreed to do it. Within a month of being there, I was told: “We really like how you are around the players. Would you consider training to be a masseur, too?” I qualified within a year and in 2001, when I was on holiday with Gary Nev, my sister and my girlfriend, David Beckham called me and asked if I’d like to be a masseur for England, too.
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I was trusted and that’s vital in that position, but I also played football and didn’t want to give that up. United asked me to go everywhere with the team. Going to another hotel, bus and stadium didn’t really appeal — I’d heard the lads talking about travelling all the time.
I found what worked for me. For travel, I did Champions League away games. My job was being part of the players’ maintenance. Most of the players would use me. Giggsy was the most professional — and that’s why he played until he’s 40. Yoga was big for him, too.
A massage can take the tension out of the muscles. I’d massage the whole legs, glutes and back. If I was just doing legs I’d spend 45 minutes. If players wanted their feet doing I’d do them, too. The times were obviously shorter at half-time – Wazza always wanted a quick massage at half-time. We became very good mates and argued like kids, though he snapped at me once.
Wazza was notoriously poor when we played Everton away and Sir Alex would call him out on it. One half-time at Goodison, I gave him a massage. He’d been poor there again, he couldn’t get in the game and I said: “Come on Wazza, you need to be better.”
He shouted at the top of his voice: “What the fuck do you want me to do?”
The whole dressing room went quiet and everyone looked at us. I got properly embarrassed.
“Just be better,” I whimpered.
“Wazza became Man United and England’s top goal scorer. Great player. The 2004-2009 Wayne Rooney we had was the best and he deserved to win the European Cup with us. He’s my favourite Man United player of all time; he’d win games for us. We had the best team in the world — bar Barcelona, maybe the greatest club side ever — between 2008 and 2011. Three Champions League finals in four years. I pinched myself at times being with them every day.”
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Didn’t Rooney once start a campaign on Twitter to get you followers?
He did. He found me on Twitter on a pre-season tour in Seattle. I started getting loads of followers and thought “What is this?”. Wazza had tweeted something like “Everyone follow my mate Rod the Rub”. I went from having a few mates to 25,000 followers overnight. All of them giving me stick.
On the same trip, in 2011, I was asked to organise a game of golf. Sorting out the golf was one of my extra jobs. I also wrote the Christmas panto for 15 years and Sir Alex loved them, with all the mickey-taking out of players.
On the plane, I was asked to get the players’ shoe sizes for golf shoes. I got up and started collecting them, then sat down next to Wazza and started eating a sandwich, which had been left out for me. The sandwich didn’t taste quite right but I still wolfed it down. Then I said: “Has someone put mustard on my sandwich or something?” and everyone started laughing. They were all in on a joke.
One of them put a snus packet on my sandwich and I ate it. When we got to the hotel I didn’t feel good. We had a one-hour turnaround to go to training. I was going green. I got to the training ground and vomited everywhere… they all thought it hilarious.
And I carried on doing massages. Some lads wanted Deep Heat as their rub, even on their feet, but Nemanja Vidic wanted Deep Freeze, which has the opposite effect. Massages can be positive mentally, too. You get up from the bed and think ‘I’ve had a massage, I feel better’. The lads could open up with me. You become a confidant, you become close. They get stuff off their chest. My job was to listen and say nothing about what I knew. I never spoke to any journalists.
With lads who didn’t speak English at the start, I’d slow my English down and speak clearer so I sounded like a right egg. And then enjoy it as the lads learned English and improved. Rafael’s English was phenomenal. Anderson called people ‘Dicky head’ instead of dick head. Sir Alex was a stickler for getting the lads to learn English as quickly as they could. He passed on at least one great player who he’d heard made no effort to integrate at clubs.
Were you asked to do anything else?
Yes. Anything I could do to help. When David Moyes came in and we were on a pre-season, Adnan Januzaj had just played half a game in Thailand. He did well. Phil Neville, a coach, pulled me and asked why Adnan had been behaving in a way which upset people like the chef. I knew Adnan and was asked to have a word.
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The next morning, I went to his room and said: “Mate, you’ve half a game for Man United and you’re acting like a World Cup winner. Stop pissing people off, you’re upsetting them. The backroom staff here have a lot of power without you knowing it. The new manager is asking people what players are like. What do you think they’ll say about you? You’ve played half a game for United. Get your head down, stop pissing people off and concentrate on your football.”
What I later found out was that he called Patrice Evra straight away in tears. Patrice said: “Rod has been at this club a long time. He knows what’s best for you. Listen to him.”
Adnan came up to me and thanked me. Then he behaved well… for about four months.
How did you approach the role?
I’d try to have a laugh with everyone, to be someone who made the environment a better place. You could not get wound up and show weakness. The rules in a dressing room don’t apply to the rules in the rest of the world. You’d get battered.
It’s banter-based. If you’re not being spoken about or spoken to, you don’t matter in the dressing room. I found myself becoming really involved. The last four captains: Wayne, (Michael) Carrick, Ashley Young and (Antonio) Valencia would ask my opinion on situations. They’d always make their own decisions, but I was fine being a sounding board and I’d been there a long time. I was a local lad, too.
There were some great characters. Nicky Butt was a big joker — most of his jokes were aimed at Phil Neville. Anderson too. I was a joker myself. If they came in wearing shit clothes then I’d hang the clothes up while they trained for all to see.
Ole (Gunnar Solskjaer) came in wearing a big pair of padded boots. They looked so shit. So while he trained I got a cardboard box and cut out two skis and put his boots on them. He laughed.
Ronaldo would wear some terrible gear, so I’d hang his clothes up in the middle of the dressing room. If you get everything behind the scenes in a good place it adds to the team; if they’re smiling, they’re happy.
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Scholes didn’t have many massages. He’d come in, train and go home as quickly as he could. Wazza was always on the table, Giggsy, too. Michael Owen was on the massage table all the time with England but rarely for United.
I got on well with some of the England players, especially Frank Lampard, John Terry and Ashley Cole. I really took a shine to Adam Lallana and Kyle Walker. I even got on with Steven Gerrard, even though there was a Man United/Liverpool divide in that team. We know he was a great player, but I saw a brilliant captain off the pitch. Wayne picked up what he knew from the managers he played under and the captains he played with. I think Wayne Rooney is a very good manager — what he did at Derby was amazing.
What do you remember most about the games, the stadiums and the atmospheres?
The best two atmospheres I experienced were in Zagreb with England and Feyenoord in 2016 with United. We were sitting among the home fans as I wasn’t always on the bench, especially as the staff grew. It was scary. Fenerbahce away too, in 2016: really scary.
At Brighton away under Jose Mourinho, I found myself in the directors’ box with a United tracksuit on. I had to leave three minutes before half-time to get to the changing room. I ran up the stairs and a man stepped out and said: “Hello Rod, how are you doing?”
I recognised him but I wasn’t sure where from. I thought he might be the driver for one of the players, but then why would he be in the directors’ box at Brighton?
So I said: “What the fuck are you doing here anyway?”
And Paul Barber replied: “I’m the chief executive here.” I’d met Paul working for England and didn’t place him.
Tell us about the managers you worked under…
I first saw Sir Alex when he came to our house to sign Ben. I was 13 and came home from school and thought: ‘That’s Man United’s manager sat on my sofa’. He was with Brian Kidd. Ben had been training with City but United wanted him.
Sir Alex never forgot my mum and dad. He was a fantastic man. He told me off a few times, but then I’d done a few things wrong! His managerial skills off the pitch were incredible. He knew everything about every one of his staff. He had a personal touch for everyone. I loved him. There were times when I thought, ‘What’s he doing here with the team?’ But he was usually right and that’s why he’s the greatest manager ever.
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David Moyes?
I liked him. He made changes for making changes’ sake, but I get that he wanted to bring his own men in. He told me off once in the lounge at Manchester airport. The lads got a sausage sandwich and I got one, too. It was lovely. So I was sitting around the players and we were all eating sausage sandwiches. He looked at me and said: “You shouldn’t be eating sausage sandwiches.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said, laughing. By this time I’d not played football for three years and was the butt of everyone’s fat jokes.
“I’m not laughing,” said David. “You shouldn’t be eating sausage sandwiches!” There were other passengers in the lounge, too. I was probably the scapegoat because other players were also eating these lovely sausage sandwiches. David had it in his head about players eating healthily.
I got on the plane and my head was spinning because the manager wasn’t happy with me. Just after take-off, a voice came on the public address system. We thought it was the pilot and he was talking about the height of the plane. Then he said: “And if anyone wants a sausage sandwich, please see Rod Thornley.” Everyone laughed except David, but I got on with him. He had a very hard job but he struggled with United being an ‘us’ or ‘we’.
In team talks, it was ‘You can do this’. Not ‘we’.
Louis van Gaal?
He was hard work but a good human being and he could be very funny. He just had this absolute vision of what he wanted. He was too rigid in his tactics and especially in his training and, ultimately, he lost the dressing room because of that.
When we won the FA Cup in 2016, he still came to the party after — despite all the stories about him being sacked. The chief executive and the Glazers didn’t, which was unusual.
I had my son at the party and took him to see Louis, who was sitting in the corner with his tie off. My son was seven. Louis sat my son on his lap and said: “Can I tell you something about your dad? He is a fantastic person.” That was lovely.
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Jose Mourinho?
I got on with him better than any other manager. We got off to a good start on the pre-season tour of China. We went with a skeleton staff and I was doing a lot of jobs — massages for the players and Jose’s staff, cones for training, balls and checking passports. Jose said: “Is there anything you don’t do?”
He asked me to massage his back as he had an issue, so I worked on him. We played a pre-season game at Wigan and I was chatting to their assistant manager after as he’d been at Altrincham. Jose came up, tapped me on the shoulder and said: “My back, zero problems.” I felt so good!
A few weeks later he had a go at me. We won the Community Shield and during the celebrations on the pitch, one of his Portuguese physios said: “This is brilliant.” And I replied: “It’s only the Community Shield, it’s like a friendly.” The physio told Jose.
The next day, Jose called me over and, in front of all the players, said: “Rod thinks that yesterday’s game was shit and a waste of time.”
I replied that Bournemouth the following Saturday in the league was a bigger game. At his best, he was amazing. He could make any person feel amazing. He was a brilliant manager in that respect. At his worst, he could be very, very difficult. He knew how to make a person feel like he was on cloud nine, but also how to feel shit. He made me feel special and no other manager did that.
Towards his end, when everything was shit, we fell out because I was vocal and outspoken. He wasn’t happy with that and I understand that, but I wanted to raise spirits and lift the mood, even after a defeat.
Six months after he went, he got back in touch. He asked me for my opinion on where he’d gone wrong at United and I told him. He thanked me for that.
Why did you leave?
I got skin cancer and my priorities changed. Jose left and, after years of travelling the world, going to places I wouldn’t have dreamed of visiting, I wanted to see more of my kids. I loved my time at United but I felt it was up. I was exhausted, it was hard work. Yes, you’d stay in top hotels, but even they become monotonous and it’s constant. It was an 80-hour week. It will be very hard work for the staff at the club right now with all the games.
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I had the health issue and wanted a year away from football. I’ve worked at Soccer Aid for three years as a masseur. It’s a brilliant four days and you meet some amazing people from outside of football — Usain Bolt played. I remembered him from his visits to Old Trafford and Sir Alex shouting ‘Bolt!’ when he wanted his attention.
I’m 45 now, working as a sports masseur and working with Premier League footballers at CPASE in Cheshire — Ronaldo was a regular at the gym. I like what I do and think I’m good at it. You don’t get the big highs I got with United, but I do get home long before 4am.
(Top photo: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty Images).
