FORMER WHITES PHYSIO GEOFF LADLEY HAS PASSED AWAY AGED 89 AFTER A SHORT ILLNESS.
Ladley had two separate spells at the club and looked after Currie and his Whites team mates in the first of those stints from the late 1970s until the late 1980s.
The physio returned to Leeds in the middle of the 1990s and Currie says United were blessed to have an employee who was ahead of his time.
“He looked after me so well,” Currie told the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“He used to work at Pinderfields in the evening at Wakefield and what a lovely gent he was.
“He was a top class physio, top notch and in those days there weren’t that many top class physios about.
“I think Sheffield Wednesday had one who worked with the England team and I think Arsenal had a top class one as well and Leeds did.
“But Geoff was top quality.
“He was a very dour man but a gentleman. I don’t think he was made or cut out for the banter of the football in those days but a lovely bloke. I got on great with him.”
Remembering how Ladley even tried to put him back together in what proved his last game for Leeds before joining QPR, Currie recalled: “It was in my last game, away at PSV (in a friendly).
“I tackled this bloke and I missed the ball and caught his foot and it was like just tackling a wall and my foot turned up towards my knee.
“I stretched all the back of my Achilles and everything.
“Geoff looked at me on the pitch, strapped me up and put me back on but there was no way, I came off after about a minute.
“Being in Holland, we didn’t go to hospital or anything.
“He just iced it and then did it up and I think I actually went out in the evening with Ray Hankin and we went out and had a drink around the town with the boys.
“I shouldn’t have gone out but they didn’t realise how bad it was, the injury.
“I actually signed for QPR on crutches and it must have been three months before I played for them because of this injury.
“Geoff didn’t have a lot to do with that but he did look after me, he looked after us all, he was a great, great physio.”