Fred Murray

Frederick Anthony "Fred" Murray (born 22 May 1982, Clonmel, County Tipperary) is an Irish former footballer and physiotherapist.

This article is about the Irish footballer. For similarly named people, see Frederick Murray.

Fred Murray
Personal information
Full name Frederick Anthony Murray
Date of birth (1982-05-22) 22 May 1982
Place of birth Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
Belvedere
Blackburn Rovers
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2000–2002 Blackburn Rovers 0 (0)
2001–2002 → Cambridge United (loan) 13 (0)
2002–2004 Cambridge United 75 (0)
2004–2007 Northampton Town 38 (0)
2007–2008 Stafford Rangers 16 (0)
2008 Stevenage Borough 13 (0)
2008–2009 Exeter City 6 (0)
2009–2010 Grays Athletic 0 (0)
2009–2010 → Luton Town (loan) 17 (0)
2010–2012 Luton Town 51 (1)
Total 230 (2)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16:06, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

Playing career

Murray played his youth football at Belvedere before going abroad. At Belvedere he played in the same team as Wes Hoolahan.[1] Murray began his career as a trainee at Premier League side Blackburn Rovers, though he never made a first-team appearance. An initial loan period at Second Division club Cambridge United was turned permanent in March 2002, as the U's signed Murray on a free transfer from Blackburn.[2] Murray's three seasons at the club, in which he made over 100 appearances, saw Cambridge relegated to the Third Division.

He signed a three-year contract for League Two side Northampton Town for an undisclosed fee in July 2004,[3] but his tenure at the club was blighted by serious injuries, including an infected Achilles tendon.[4][5] In both the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons, Murray did not play a single minute of football. He was released in May 2007, but was invited to still train with the club.[5]

After an unsuccessful trial with Leyton Orient,[6] Murray joined Conference Premier side Stafford Rangers on 28 August 2007,[7] making his debut in a 2–1 defeat at Oxford United. He then joined Peter Taylor's Stevenage Borough team on a short-term contract in the January 2008 transfer window,[8] and narrowly missed out on a place in the Conference play-offs. After his release from Stevenage, he trained with League Two side Exeter City before signing for them, once more on a short-term deal.[9] He left Exeter on 8 May 2009, after just 6 appearances for the club.[10]

At the start of the 2009–10 season, Murray signed for Grays Athletic along with eight other players.[11] After a change in management at Grays, Murray left the club less than a week after joining them, signing for Luton Town on a six-month loan deal on 11 August 2009.[12] He made his debut for Luton on the same day, in a 4–1 home victory over Manfield Town. On 13 January 2010, with his loan deal expired, Murray signed an 18-month contract with Luton.[13]

Murray continued to be a regular fixture at left-back for Luton, though he missed parts of the 2010–11 season due to injury, including Luton's penalty shootout loss to AFC Wimbledon in the Conference Premier play-off final.

On 12 July 2011, he signed a new contract with the club.[14] On 10 November 2011, Murray was deregistered as a Luton player to allow him to focus on recovering from a serious knee injury which had seen him take no part in Luton's 2011–12 season. The club signed Darlington defender Greg Taylor as a replacement.[15] In July 2012, Luton manager Paul Buckle confirmed that Murray had left the club.[16] Murray (speaking in 2020) confirmed that, despite his injury troubles, his time at Luton was the most enjoyable of his career.[1]

Physiotherapy career

Murray sustained a career-ending injury at the age of 28.[1] His last game, away to York City for Luton in the Conference in April 2011 (a month before his 29th birthday) saw him stretchered from the field of play. [1] He trained as a physiotherapist at the University of Salford.[1] On his transition from football to physiotherapy, Murray has said: "I never had any interest in playing again as I fell in love with physio, I filled the void that football had given me and I was ready for a change. I walked from one career into another and studying physio was the best thing I ever did".[1]

Murray took up a position with QPR.[1] Harry Redknapp promoted him from an academy role to the first team, where he worked during the club's time in the Premier League.[1] His first medical was Charlie Austin.[1] Though he has spoken well of his time working with Redknapp, Murray became disillusioned with the politics of football.[1] He parted ways with QPR.[1]

Murray then founded the London-based Remedy clinic among whose clinets have been rock star Dave Grohl and numerous athletes, including "a French international, a World Cup winner" whom Murray declined to name.[1] Murray does not discuss his clients.[1] His work with Grohl (whom Murray spent about six months with following a 2015 broken leg) became public knowledge after the rock star thanked him in media interviews in 2017 and even dedicated a song to Murray on stage at a 2019 RDS show.[1] Murray said in 2020: "I had offers from Premier League clubs to go in as physio over the last few years but there is no job that would bring me back there as the work I do now [with Remedy] is the way I want to work with a client, if that's an athlete or anyone, we treat them the way they should be treated".[1]

References
  1. Fitzmaurice, Aidan (22 May 2020). "From a pretender in the football bubble to fixing Foo Fighters - How injury let Freddie Murray learn to fly". Irish Independent.
  2. "Murray makes U's switch". BBC Sport. 7 March 2002. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  3. "Murray joins Cobblers". BBC Sport. 19 July 2004. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  4. "Murray blow for Calderwood". Sky Sports. 1 September 2005. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  5. "Murray to be handed pre-season chance". Northampton Town F.C. 10 May 2007. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  6. "No O's deal for defender Murray". BBC Sport. 3 August 2007. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  7. "Ex-Northampton man joins Stafford". BBC Sport. 28 August 2007. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  8. "Stevenage sign Murray & Vincenti". BBC Sport. 4 January 2008. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  9. "Murray offered Exeter deal". Sky Sports. 17 September 2008. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  10. "Grecians release five". Sky Sports. 8 May 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  11. "Grays sign nine players in a day". BBC Sport. 5 August 2009. Retrieved 7 August 2009.
  12. "Hatters move for Murray". Luton Town F.C. 11 August 2009. Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
  13. "Trio commit their futures". Luton Town F.C. 13 January 2010. Archived from the original on 16 January 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2010.
  14. "Ed & Fred sign new contracts". Luton Town F.C. 12 July 2011. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  15. "Town land Taylor". Luton Town F.C. 10 November 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  16. "Murray leaves as Rowe-Turner joins up with Buckle once more". Luton Today. Johnston Publishing Ltd. 7 July 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
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