Anyone who's been following the fortunes of Fulham over the past six months or so probably won't be too surprised at this, or at least not as surprised as they should be. The Guardian's Daniel Taylor has helpfully decided to pass on one of the most bat-shit crazy anecdotes to come out of a football club in recent years.
You might recall that during the week, Felix Magath was removed from his post as Fulham manager having failed to save the club from relegation and then helping them to the bottom of the Championship. Magath is well renowned as a rather strange operator but even for him this just seems beyond belief.
Brede Hangeland, then the Fulham captain, was diagnosed with a slight thigh injury and the club’s doctor, Stephen Lewis, with more than a decade of working in elite sport, put together a recovery programme to try to get him fit for the weekend.
Magath had other ideas though.
There was another way to treat the problem, he said. So he sent the kit-man to the Tesco in New Malden, a short drive along the A3 from Fulham’s training ground, to buy a large block of cheese.
Hangeland was then told to perch on the end of a massage table and spend the afternoon in that position with a slab of cheese carefully positioned on the sore spot. The cheese, according to Magath, would have soothing effects.
Unsurprisingly, Hangeland smelled bullshit, as well as softening cheese, and he left the club at the end of the season along with the doctor who was so hilariously overruled.
