Wright, seen here tending to Jonjo Shelvey, has been a confidant to the players as well as a physio

Derek Wright is standing in Newcastle United’s confessional. The club’s treatment room is a converted squash court, a sparse, clean space — cream paint, three sinks, a clock, six massage tables, trolleys stacked with strapping and acupuncture needles — but for the past 34 years, it has also been a house of secrets, a place of laughter, agony and pink tutus. A sanctuary.

Wright joined Newcastle in October 1984, a qualified physiotherapist just as the era of bucket and magic sponge was ending, but it was still just him, Jack Charlton and his assistant, divvying up jobs. The room he inherited was “dirty”, the only rehab equipment an “old, rusty multi-gym”, and now there is an ensemble of doctors, sports scientists, soft-tissue specialists and performance