THESE days the only points former Birmingham left-back and fan favourite Martin Grainger is concerned about are at junctions.
For the 53-year-old is now a train driver for Govia Thameslink railway, working on Great Northern routes from King’s Cross and Moorgate in London to Stevenage, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City.
It’s a different world to his 13-year career as a player that took him from Wivenhoe Town in 1992 to Colchester, Brentford, Coventry (on loan) and helping Birmingham get promoted to the Premier League via the play-offs in 2002.
Sadly, his career as a player ended prematurely and abruptly at the age of 31 after a serious knee injury.
In his last game, he scored a 30-yard free-kick for Birmingham against Manchester United in the Prem in April 2004. But he never kicked another ball as a professional player.
Grainger revealed: “We were playing at Middlesbrough in September 2002. I felt something uncomfortable in my knee.
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“It was causing me pain and scans showed I had suffered a ruptured patellar tendon, which required corrective surgery and a lengthy lay-off.
“Having had the surgery to scrape all the rubbish out, unfortunately I had all sorts of complications with infections so I ended up having three ops to get it cleaned up.”
He returned three months later but played only three more games that season, before being loaned to Coventry for a month in February 2004.
When he returned to Brum in March, little did he know that four Prem games later his career was about to come to an untimely end.
He added: “I came on as a sub for Stan Lazaridis after 14 minutes. I remember taking a free-kick and I felt the knee just pop.
“I tried to keep going until the end of the first half. Then we got another free-kick about 30 yards out. I didn’t want to take it, knowing my knee was shot to bits.
“But manager Steve Bruce was shouting across for me to take it so I stepped up and it sailed in to give us the lead.
“The moment I got back in the dressing room I knew it was bad, the knee was a total mess — there was a hole at the front of the tendon where it had popped. It was extremely hard knowing I wouldn’t play again.”
He is bitter about the way he was treated by the Blues hierarchy of David Sullivan, David Gold and Karren Brady.
He recalled: “Brucey sat down with me, with an A4 piece of paper and what he wanted me to do in terms of a coaching role at the club.
“But when I returned a week later, the people in charge had changed everything and I was offered a job for £11,000 a year.
“I had given everything for the club for nine years, helping get promotion into the Premier League. I was insulted by their revised offer.”
Grainger was awarded a testimonial — but insists that was also a farce.
He said: “My career was cut short playing for Birmingham and yet the management sent me an invoice after my testimonial for £6,800 for the stadium that day.
“The sadness is, I absolutely adored the fans at Birmingham, who had always been brilliant with me.”
After working as a painter and decorator, he started as a train driver in 2015 and is very happy — 20 years on from his career-ending injury he enjoys a normal, healthy life.
Grainger laughed: “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to be able to give you a load of squat thrusts in the gym. But I enjoy a game of golf a couple of times a week.”
CUT SHORT by Martin Grainger (Curtis Sport, £20)
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