Reading FC First Team Physiotherapist Ray Holland speaks to us about his career working in academies and senior teams at varying levels of the football pyramid and how the experiences can differ, especially between academies and senior sides. 

We discuss how to go about seeking experience and then having the desire to take the next steps to gain and maintain a job in sport. We then reflect on the teams and networks we build around us to thrive in what can be sometimes daunting, competitive, sporting environments. 

As with all of our guests, Ray shares his top tip for getting into a career in sport as well as his key research paper recommendation that has helped define his practice, selecting a paper that focuses on pain and how it can be applied to acute injuries in the sporting setting. 

Bogduk, N., 2009. On the definitions and physiology of back pain, referred pain, and radicular pain. Pain, 147(1), pp.17-19.