Ex-footballer undergoing operation shares NHS guidance for 'safe sexual positions following a hip replacement'

Former Bolton and Wigan footballer Kevin McNaughton became an internet hit following hip replacement surgery. From his hospital bed, the 39-year-old Scot tweeted pictures of a guidance leaflet handed to patients by NHS Tayside titled 'safe sexual positions following a hip replacement'.

"Couldn't make it up," wrote the former journeyman defender who played for Aberdeen, Cardiff, Bolton, Wigan and Inverness as well as for Scotland, incredulous at the enclosed diagrams of the more adventurous sexual positions the trust advises against. His post was quickly shared almost 20,000 times.

But behind the general hilarity which ensued is a serious point: every year tens of thousands of people are handed a new lease of life thanks to hip replacement surgery - and, increasingly, they are being given to much younger patients, like Kevin, because of increased confidence in the longevity of the replacement joints, according to the Royal College of Surgeons. And they can help people who have perhaps lived with pain have better sex.

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And younger people, it seems, are going to be much more interested in knowing when, and how exactly, they should be giving their new hip a run-out in the bedroom.

Following a career spanning almost 20 years, which included 472 club appearances and four for Scotland, the rigours of professional football have clearly taken their toll on Kevin McNaughton.

"In for a new hip today - the old one put in a good shift," tweeted McNaughton, now a youth team coach at Dundee, on Thursday morning. After his surgery, he was handed the advice booklet and quickly shared its contents, which illustrated 'the sexual