WITH qualifications for the fire service, football coaching, personal training and sports massage – not to mention stints in the RAF and the PE department of a local school, as well as a modelling contract – it’s fair to say Gareth Seddon is keeping his options open for when his playing career comes to an end.
But for now, he may have unfinished business with the Football League, after helping Fleetwood Town win promotion from the Conference.
Ten years ago, the Burnley-born striker had come to the end of his first season in professional football, having progressed through Bury’s youth team ranks and burst into the first team – his goals engineering the nickname ‘the Hapton Hitman’.
But within months of earning a move to then Third Division rivals Rushden and Diamonds in the summer of 2004, his career was cruelly cut short by a condition that affects the immune system and causes inflammation in joints.
Seddon had never heard of spondyloarthropathy before.
But he was to come to learn much about the arthritic disorder which had crushed his dreams and changed his life.
He discovered that, one day, his body would mend itself. The condition that had caused loss of feeling in his lower right leg, knees to swell and hands to stiffen, rendering him unable to even feed himself at times, would eventually work its way through his system.
It was just a matter of time.
No-one, though, could say how long. Each case is different.
Rushden – like most clubs – could not afford to wait, and on medical advice to retire Seddon reluctantly walked away from football in 2005 with only an insurance claim and his memories to show for the previous four years. But seven years on, he has come full circle.
“It’s been a big carrot to get back into the Football League. With two promotions in three years we have got there and I can look back and say that I helped,” said the former Gawthorpe High School pupil.
“That’s a brilliant achievement for me in itself. If I can go up with them and play in the league that would be an added bonus.”
All that stands in the way of the 31-year-old getting a second chance at the Football League is the amount of compensation he would be asked to reimburse the authorities and a new contract, with his current one set to expire.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” he said. “I would like to think I will still be there. With the right additions in the summer I think we could mirror what Crawley have achieved this year.”
But Seddon admits his medical torment has made him simply appreciate the ability to play, whatever the level.
“If you’d have said to me when I retired that I would play five years’ professional football again I would have taken in no matter what,” said the striker, who earned full-time contracts with Kettering and Fleetwood following spells with Padiham and Hyde, after building back to fitness.
“That’s all I wanted.”
But the recollections of 18 months out of the game are his biggest drive.
“When you’re fit and you’re training every day the last thing you want to do is run. When you’re injured the ONLY thing you want to do is run,” said Seddon, who never allows himself a day off from exercise now.
“I want to play for as long as I can. I can’t think of anything worse than getting to 33 or 34 and having to stop because I haven’t looked after myself.”
But he is prepared for when the time comes again.
“I’ve just completed my UEFA B coaching badges, I’ve got qualifications in personal training and nutrition and I’ve just completed my national diploma in sports massage,” he said. “I’ve done loads of little things so that when I do finish playing football for good I can still stay around it.”
After celebrating promotion at the Grand National when Wrexham dropped points against Grimsby, Seddon will get his hands on the Conference trophy today, as Fleetwood play their final game of the season.
On Tuesday he is set to find out how much he would have to pay back to the Football League if he stays with Fleetwood.
But surely a return would be priceless.
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