STEPHEN Jordan was 30 when the thought struck him: 'What am I going to do when I retire?'.

The former Burnley left-back was at Rochdale when he started considering his post-career options, and decided to pursue a passion he had held since the early days of his career coming through Manchester City's academy.

While some players will look to stay in the game through coaching or management, Jordan had always been fascinated by physiotherapy.

He discussed his options with Oshor Williams, the education officer at the Professional Footballers' Association, and pursued their course at Salford University.

For the first three years of the four-and-a-half year course Jordan was still training full-time with Fleetwood Town and heading to Salford for five or six hours tuition on a Monday and Thursday afternoon.

"It was hard work, I’ve got a young family as well which was the hardest bit really," the 35-year-old said. "But it was something I wanted to do, that my wife and kids were very supportive of."

As well as the lectures and work at the university Jordan did a number of placements, including one at Gawthorpe.

"I had six placements in all," he said. "I had to do an observational three week placement after my first year which was at Manchester Royal Infirmary, then I did placements at a private company called Harris and Ross in Manchester, who then sent me out to places like Salford Red Devils and Widnes Vikings, I did five weeks at Salford Red Devils.

"Then I went to Wythenshawe Hospital, I did a placement on the ward. I did a placement at Burnley Academy and then my last one was at Stepping Hill Hospital, in Stockport."

Jordan will graduate later this month with a 2:1 honours degree, and said his interest in physiotherapy had been there during his early years in the game.

"It’s something I looked at when I was doing my YT at football," he said. "I was interested in it, but at the time it wasn’t as good a schooling as it was know for football lads. It was either a leisure and tourism diploma or some kind of woodwork.

"Physio was something I was always interested in but it got put on the backburner when I was playing. I got to 30 and thought ‘what am I going to do when I retire?’. So I went down this route."

Jordan, who spent last season in the National League North with Chorley and has a year remaining on his deal with the Magpies, would like to work in football eventually, but believes he will need NHS experience first.

While playing at Fleetwood Jordan enjoyed a good relationship with physio Luke Bussey, who he knew from his time at Burnley, and he was helping to diagnose himself on the treatment table.

"More towards the latter part of my career I was, early on I did what I was told and believed everything I was told," the former Clarets left-back said.

"At Fleetwood I knew the physio previously from Burnley and I got on well with him, he would run me through things and with other players as well."

Jordan is coming to the end of his playing career now, and he looks back on his time at Turf Moor as the best years of his career.

The Manchester City fan had started his career with his boyhood club, but remembers the 83 games he played for the Clarets from 2007 to 2010 fondly.

"It was the happiest times of my career," he said. "The three or four years I had at Burnley were the best of my career by an absolute mile. I loved it, and I’ve still got some good friends from that time now.

"It was the feeling around the dressing room, we had a really good set of lads which went a long way."

It was a camaraderie that Jordan thought would be commonplace in all dressing rooms, but he soon found after his move away from Turf Moor that that wasn't the case.

"After Burnley I went to Sheffield United and I didn’t find that friendship as much as I did at Burnley and I struggled with it a bit," Jordan said.

"I thought I’d go somewhere else and it would be the same as it was at Burnley and it wasn’t, Burnley was a bit of a unique place at the time."

The highlight of Jordan's time at Turf Moor was the 2008/09 promotion season and then the start the Clarets made to the Premier League season the year after, with early wins over Manchester United and Everton at Turf Moor.

But if there is one regret from his time at the club it is missing out on the Wembley win over Sheffield United in the Championship play-off final.

"It was incredible, we had the League Cup run as well, it was an incredible year. It was a very good place to be," Jordan remembered.

"I was disappointed to miss out at Wembley, I played most games and then I got injured with about 10 games to go and Christian Kalvenes came in and he played and they didn’t lose a game so he stayed in.

"The game against Manchester United was pretty special (the following season)."

Midway through that Premier League season Owen Coyle left to be replaced by Brian Laws and Jordan took the decision to leave, only to realise he was going to regret it fairly quickly.

"It’s a great town, a great football town. I loved my time there, I really enjoyed it and I wish I hadn’t left really," he said.

"I had a chance to stay and I should have stayed, but Brian Laws had been brought in, and he wasn’t filling me or the lads with much joy really.

"Pretty much straightaway after I moved on I knew I’d made the wrong decision and I’d regret it."