Derek Wright parked up at the training ground and made the same walk through reception that he had thousands of times before. This time was different, though: Newcastle United's head physiotherapist was saying goodbye after deciding to retire following an incredible 38 years of service to the club.
Newcastle were not going to let Wright slip out the back door, of course, and players and staff gathered in the canteen last Friday to give the 63-year-old a proper send-off. Eddie Howe and club doctor Paul Catterson both stood up to say a few words before Wright addressed his colleagues one last time. Although Wright managed to 'hold it together', the physio admitted it hit home, there and then, 'how much I'll miss it'.
"The players all stood and gave me a round of applause for what seemed an age," Wright told ChronicleLive. "That was quite emotional. I was finding it difficult to keep a grip. It was like a wedding after that because they came over one by one and said their piece and then I said my piece.
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"The manager was nice at the end. He just said, 'You must come back. I'm going to keep inviting you back'."
Howe's words and the tributes from supporters and players past and present tell their own story. Alan Shearer called Wright a 'great man' who helped him back to fitness 'so many times'. Steve Harper hailed the man nicknamed 'Del Boy' as a 'brilliant servant and true unsung hero' who was 'always there when I needed him'. Rob Lee said Wright was a 'great physio and even better person'.
Current skipper Jamaal Lascelles, who is in the process of arranging a farewell gift on behalf of the squad, simply said: 'What a guy'. Martin Dubravka and Paul Dummett, meanwhile, were among those who referred to the 63-year-old as a 'legend'. Wright will miss them all.
So much so, Wright had even been considering staying on at Newcastle for another couple of years, to sign off following four decades' service, but the Durham native had a 'switch' in his head that was difficult to flick off. Wright selflessly felt it was 'only right' for someone younger to take over.
"It's a lot of work, there's a lot of stress and, physically, I can't do what I used to be able to do," he said. "I used to be out on the pitch, I used to be joining in every single gym session.
"I still try to join in with the gym sessions with them but, certainly, nothing like I used to. That part of the job was becoming a bit frustrating for me.
"I was probably migrating back into the treatment room instead of it being: treatment room, pitch, gym, rehabilitation. I was getting a little bit frustrated that my legs didn't work anymore basically. It happens. It's just a fact of life.
"It needs somebody younger. I wouldn't have wanted me pottering about the treatment room well into my 60s. I've had a fantastic time. It was the right time with where the club are going to go as well."
Not many staff members get to go out on their own terms in football, but Wright bucked that trend - and some. It seems remarkable to say this now but, given the volatile nature of the game, Wright simply set himself the target of getting to five years when he first started working at Newcastle in 1984.
Wright, after all, had seen colleagues and friends lose their jobs through no fault of their own over the years as managers freshened up departments. However, just as Wright soon could not imagine working anywhere else - turning down offers from elsewhere in the process - 32 managers went on to value his expertise so much, whether it was Jack Charlton or Eddie Howe.
Wright, in turn, took a great deal from each of the bosses he worked with. While the physio only spent six months in the dressing room with Howe, the Magpies' head coach was among those who clearly left an impression.
"He's very clever," Wright said. "He does a lot of reading himself and a lot of thinking. He's a deep thinker about the game and, tactically, he's aware of every aspect of the game.
"He's very much aware of the sports psychology aspect in doing certain things at certain times and saying the right things at the right times."
Howe quickly observed that Wright was a top-class practitioner who was still desperate to learn and improve in his final months at the club when it came to adapting to changes in medicine or keeping up to date with the latest research. In fact, Wright spent the days after his training ground farewell on a musculoskeletal ultrasound course in London as part of the part-time work he will continue to do in his clinic in Jesmond.
The clinic is a little quieter than the treatment room at Newcastle, which was the heartbeat of the training ground for so many years. Wright would open up two hours before training and it got to the stage where, sometimes, the physio would have to clear the room out because so many players were congregating for their morning chat.
Wright earned the trust of the players, as someone they could turn to, and the 63-year-old admitted there are 'some things I'm going to have to take to the grave'. Footballers have changed a lot over the years but, as Wright is keen to point out, they are still 'human beings and they've all got failings'.
"Seeing people on a daily basis, you would know when somebody is not right or not happy or they've got a worried look on their face," he said. "If they're injured, there's what we call a subjective thing from them every day of how they are and how they are improving so you get a good idea from that.
"If they're coming in just for maintenance work - they might want a hip mobilisation before training - you've got a chance to chat with them for maybe five or 10 minutes and you might become aware that something is not quite right. If you needed to chat to them further, you would pull them after training.
"I've been called a mother hen on numerous occasions. At first, I was thinking, 'Mother hen?!' But it was a term of endearment. I could see where they were coming from."
That camaraderie is what Wright will miss the most. Although Wright will return to St James' as a supporter, with his sons, the physio admitted it will be 'strange' seeing those players he got to know so well from the terraces rather than from the side of the pitch.
This feels a difficult time to walk away in so many ways - particularly under the new ownership. As club doctor Paul Catterson, the head of medicine, previously told ChronicleLive: 'I can now get the best in class'.
Having endured the 'limbo' years under Mike Ashley, where he could not plan, Wright felt like a 'kid in a sweet shop' after the takeover went through when it came to finally getting the 'staffing level that the lads deserve'. As Wright put it, himself, 'you can't spend £40 million on a player and then the player is 10th in the queue for treatment because we haven't got enough staff'.
It said it all that by the time Wright departed, there were sometimes not enough seats for staff in the morning medical meetings - and more additions are planned, including a full-time nutritionist and assistant team doctor. Filling Wright's shoes, however, will be easier said than done as the 63-year-old adjusts to his new life.
"I'm a bit institutionalised with being in football and being in that role," he added. "I had done it for 38 years at the same club and you do have a routine.
"It's on your mind. It's your life and you can't really get away from it. You're always on the end of the phone. I wouldn't have changed it for the world, but that's been a bit strange.
"Normally, the close season is that sort of period of getting all your jobs done: 'I need to do that in the garden. I need to put gravel down there.' You run out of time but I won't run out of time now. I'll get all the jobs done."
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