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The Nairobian

I've replaced football with a new glove affair

Sports

By MAIL ONLINE | Nov 16, 2013

LIVERPOOL: When I decided to retire, there was one thing I was worried about more than anything else.

It wasn’t that I would no longer be playing games. What concerned me most was what I would do without the day-to-day routine of going to Melwood, Liverpool’s training ground. I’d been making the same journey for nearly 20 years, so to stop was going to be a culture shock.

From a mental point of view, I knew I had done enough. During a season, you are constantly up and down and it is mentally exhausting. Playing my 737th and final game against Queens Park Rangers in May came at the right time.

But I knew a big void would come from no longer being in the dressing room, missing the banter and the wisecracks. Thankfully, I’ve found something that has helped make my transition into retirement seamless. It is also providing me with the buzz I used to get at Melwood. Boxing.

For the past five months, I’ve been going to the Rotunda gym in Liverpool, which is close to Anfield and Goodison Park. It’s a small place. There’s a ring at one end of the building, plenty of punchbags dotted around and a few weight machines. It is authentic and has been well used.

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It is also where Tony Bellew is plotting to become WBC light-heavyweight world champion — he fights Adonis Stevenson in Quebec City on November 30.

Keeping fit was always something I was going to do when I retired, but I didn’t fancy plodding on a treadmill at the local gym. I did, however, know some of the lads at the Rotunda and I’d been in briefly in the past, to sharpen up before pre-season. What really appealed was the environment.

When I started in the mid-1990s, the youth team consisted of my friends. There were characters everywhere, like ‘little’ Davie Thompson. He’d have us in hysterics each day, doing daft things like wearing five of the big substitute overcoats, so he would waddle out to training looking like a sumo wrestler.

The camaraderie we had continued and the season we won the Cup treble, in 2000-01, things were as good off the pitch as they were on it. Friends were all around again like Steven Gerrard, Danny Murphy, Jamie Redknapp, Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler. Didi Hamann slotted in seamlessly.

We were all young lads enjoying ourselves and you could see the rapport we had built up in our play.
Things changed towards the end, due to how diverse the squad had become, but it was no bad thing. You mature with age and your focus changes. The hour before training became a time to spend in the gym or with the physio rather than messing around.

Now it is like I have gone back in time when I step into the Rotunda. We argue about boxing; we argue about football. People give me stick over things I’ve said on TV or written in this column. Tony is also a massive Evertonian and keeps telling me he is going to get me in the ring!

Mail Online