Wayne Rooney is treated by Mick Rathbone during Everton's game against Middlesbrough at Goodison Park on March 27, 2004

Physio Mick ‘Baz’ Rathbone loved his time at Everton – even if he was often the butt of the players’ jokes.

Rathbone, who is currently helping out at Harrogate Town on maternity cover in what he believes is his 11th posting in the past three years after another thwarted scheme to retire, recently entertained the League Two outfit’s squad with his ‘House of Bamboo’ dance, but he reckons that given that stakes are so high, a more serious streak now prevails among Premier League clubs. That wasn’t the case during the first of his two spells with the Blues between 2002-2010 though when he regularly found himself on the receiving end of some cutting banter.

Appearing as a guest on the Royal Blue podcast to coincide with the publication of his new book The Smell Of Football 3, the 66-year-old, nicknamed ‘Baz’ after actor Basil Rathbone, who was famous for playing Sherlock Holmes, revealed how Duncan Ferguson had dubbed him “Bob the f*****g builder,” when turning up in a...