Dean Court Days - Harry Redknapp's special boot

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Continuing our serialisation of Michael Dunne's Dean Court Days which is a biography of Harry Redknapp published by Pitch Publishing. Michael, editor or All Departments podcast, recalls the time during Redknapp's playing career at Bournemouth when physio wasn't quite up to today's standards.

Michael enjoying at match at Dean Court.

As the demands of pre-season rose with the new campaign approaching, Redknapp tore a calf muscle which ruled him out of contention for what was described as a ‘secret’ friendly with Chelsea. It was no more than a training exercise behind closed doors, but when the Cherries ran out surprise 3-2 winners, Benson wasted little time in contacting the Evening Echo to ensure they and the town learnt about this triumph. ‘Naturally I was pleased that we won,’ he said modestly, ‘but what impressed me was the fitness of the players – they were much quicker than Chelsea. The work rate was excellent and so was the shooting.’

Benson was confident that preparations were going well as the first public friendly approached

against Aldershot. Redknapp was put through what was described as a ‘rigorous’ fitness test, and, after coming through unscathed, made the bench for the match at the Recreation Ground. He played the entire second half, but ended up wishing that it had been another ‘secret’ encounter as the Shots ran out 3-0 victors. Benson, with commendable one-eyed vision, said after the match, ‘Aldershot are not a good side, but on the day they were better than us.’ What this said about his own team, the Bournemouth support shuddered to think.

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Redknapp made another appearance in a defeat to Yeovil, which Benson described as ‘terrible stuff’. Soon after, a recurrence of the old knee injury saw Harry miss the rest of pre-season and he remained on the treatment table for the opening games of the Fourth Division campaign. Desperate to bring his injury curse to an end, Harry turned to an unorthodox method of recovery. ‘When I was trying to get fit,’ he recalls, ‘my father-in-law made me a boot, with a normal shoe and a bar through the bottom where I could screw two weights on the end so I could do leg lifts. And that boot, everybody at the football club used it. It was just a normal black shoe, size nine. Anyone who was injured who could get their foot in it would use it. That was there for years and years. People don’t realise how basic it was. We didn’t have any machinery, we had no gym equipment and no one went to the gym.’

If you want to pick up a copy of 'Dean Court Days' just click on the link and order your copy now! Michael will be signing copies of Dean Court Days at @InOffTheFarPost, in Pokesdown BH7 6AX on Saturday 23 June 1pm- 3pm.

In other news, Aaron Ramsdale made his England U21 debut as the team progressed to the Semi-final after beating Qatar 4-0 at the weekend.