Laois RISSC

🇮🇪🇶🇦 One of Ireland’s own will be on the pitch tonight just not in the way you’d expect. Richie Partridge from Dublin is Qatar’s head physio, and his journey to get there is some story. He joined Liverpool as a teenager in 1997, represented the Republic of Ireland at U17, U18 and U21 level, and looked destined for a big career. Injuries had other ideas, and after spells at Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Chester and a handful of others, he was forced to hang up his boots for good. But Partridge didn’t walk away from football. He retrained, graduating with first-class honours in Physiotherapy from Salford University in 2009, then added an MSc in football rehabilitation from Edge Hill. He went back to Liverpool, worked his way up from the Academy to Klopp’s first team, and in 2020 made the move to Qatar’s national setup, based at the world-class Aspatar facility. Tonight, as Qatar line out, there’ll be a Dub in the dugout keeping their players on the pitch. Fair play to him. 👏