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Fred Murray

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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 (age 42)
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)

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

Playing career

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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

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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]

Honours

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Cambridge United

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. ^ a b "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. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  17. ^ Fletcher, Paul (24 March 2002). "Blackpool lift LDV Vans Trophy". BBC Sport. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
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