MARK Taylor is on course to become the most qualified ex-player in the ranks of football physiotherapy.

A master's degree in sports science next summer will see the newest addition to the Wanderers' backroom team fulfil a long-held ambition to reach the top of his chosen profession.

Yet it was the experience of having played the game as much as the letters behind his name that prompted Sam Allardyce to turn to the former Blackpool midfielder when his previous appointment, Mark Leather, was head-hunted by Sunderland.

And it's that experience as much as his knowledge and expertise that Taylor hopes will ensure the Bolton players' fitness is in safe hands.

"Come the summer, I will become the most qualified physio who has actually played the game as a professional," he confirms, "but that's not everything.

"I think it's most important that I have played the game and I would hope that, plus the qualifications and the experience I am gaining all the time, will help me improve."

Who better to understand the angst and the trauma a player feels when he's sidelined than a man whose own playing career was cut short by injury?

It's always tragic to see a career end prematurely but Taylor - who scored an impressive 40 goals in 100 League games for the Seasiders before his career ended prematurely at Wrexham - was fortunate in some ways since he was already planning to become a physio.

"I got my physiotherapy degree at Salford when I was still playing," he explains, "I did four years, part-time. Then I spent a lot of time doing psychology and exercise physiology and all the other post-graduate physio stuff like manipulation, massage and aquatherapy.

"When I went to Blackburn I decided to do a master's degree in sports science which goes into more detail on the research side."

It wasn't exactly the dark ages when Taylor made his League debut for Hartlepool in the early eighties but some of the old 'sponge men' around in those days were no more acquainted with the finer points of bio-mechanics as they were with quantum physics!

Yet that's just one of the many fields of expertise demanded of today's top physios. Lessons learned from visits to some of Europe's top clubs including AC Milan and Ajax during his time on the backroom staff at Blackburn, have given Taylor, who turned 36 this week, a greater appreciation of diet and nutrition as well as physiology and the psychological aspects of the game - all areas he was pleased to see Allardyce had focused on before his arrival at the Reebok last month.

"The big clubs on the continent, in Italy in particular, have full-time dieticians and psychologists," he points out, "which is something Sam's trying to bring on board here. Obviously it's governed by finance but we are hoping to tap into certain links so that we can bring in people like that on a part-time basis.

"We already have psychologists, we are heading towards having a part-time dietician, a nutritionist; we have a sports scientist, chiropodists and we can also tap into certain chiropractors."

He added: "The specialists we are now dealing with are the best in the country - in some cases the best in the world. There's been quite a big change at the club over the last 12 months and I've just come in on the back end of it.

"We are planning to develop even further but we mustn't forget the football, which is what we are about.

"The science is important but, for instance, if we are doing any rehab, we gear it round football. We don't just stick a player on a machine."

Taylor inherited a catalogue of long-term injuries when he arrived at the Reebok but he has quickly got to know his 'patients' and has created a good impression.

It helps to be working with dedicated players and Taylor can't speak too highly of his charges. "They've been brilliant. The majority of the time, in fact 99 per cent, I'm having to hold them back. They are so keen and so professional that I've had to restrict them."