EXCLUSIVE: Massey leaving Liverpool to join Fifa
Massey joined Liverpool in 2013
Written by Simon Austin — December 14, 2019
ANDY MASSEY, described by Liverpool as their ‘master of medicine’, is leaving the club after six and a half years to become the new Director of Medical at Fifa.
The Northern Irishman, who heads up Liverpool’s medical department, is due to start his new job on March 1st 2020.
Massey will be a familiar face to Liverpool fans. He sits on the bench on matchdays, often monitoring action on an iPad, and goes onto the pitch along with the physio to give medical assistance to injured players.
He has played a key role in reducing the number of injuries at the club and will be pivotal over the next few weeks, with Liverpool facing fixture congestion because of their participation in the Club World Cup.
Fifa have internally announced Massey’s appointment in an email to staff, which has been seen by TGG.
“Andrew Massey will be our new Director of Medical," it states. "Andy is the current Head of Medical Services at Liverpool FC. He has a long medical experience not only at a prominent football club (indeed, the Champions Leagues holder), also as National Team Doctor (Irish FA).
"He lectures on the Manchester Metropolitan University MSc Sport and Exercise Medicine since 2016. Andrew will join us as from 1 March 2020.”
Massey represented Northern Ireland's schoolboy team and played as a centre-half for Bangor and Linfield during his career. In 2013, he joined Liverpool as their Academy doctor, before being promoted to Head of Medical, covering Academy and first team, in 2015.
In an interview with the club’s official website in November 2017, he explained: “I head up the physio and sports science departments as well as the medicine department, so I’m looking at the overall performance side of things while also still doing the first-team doctor job.”
In all, he was managing 24 professionals across Melwood and the Academy. When manager Jürgen Klopp was appointed as manager in October 2015, he implemented a fiercely intense style of play in training and matches, which initially led to a spate of injuries.
"Jürgen’s philosophy is very much that we’ve got to run further, run faster, run quicker than every other team because if we can do that then the skill will take over," Massey explained in the November 2017 interview.
“When Jürgen first came into the club, we tried to put that in there, but the boys weren’t up to that physical level yet to meet the demands. At one stage, we had 13 hamstring injuries but now, with the benefit of two pre-seasons, we’re seeing the boys work so much harder and they look like they’re more protected.
“The manager’s brilliant at listening to us. Of course he wants the players back as quickly as possible but he’s brilliant. If we tell him that somebody is too big of a risk then he’ll listen to us.”
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