'I can get the best' - Newcastle owners' unseen changes as club doctor on standby for medicals

Newcastle United's club doctor has not been able to switch off completely this summer - and there is a good reason for that.

At any given moment, Dr Paul Catterson could get the call and a medical will have to be booked in for a new signing. That is exactly what happened before Matt Targett completed his £15m move to St James' Park last week.

"I'm always ready," Dr Catterson told ChronicleLive.

Dr Catterson did not have to go too far to carry out Targett's tests, on Tyneside, but he did have to travel thousands of miles to Brazil earlier this year to conduct Bruno Guimaraes' medical because the midfielder was on international duty at the time. If ever a sentence summed up how the club has changed since the owners arrived last October.

Just as Newcastle are attracting a different profile of player on the field, the hierarchy are keen to ensure that Eddie Howe and the club's staff have proper support off it, too. Among the positions Newcastle are currently recruiting for is an assistant first team doctor to deliver elite sports medical services for the senior squad and that additional help has understandably been welcomed by Dr Catterson.

"We can now look forward and start to build and I can get the best in class," he said. "If we want certain pieces of equipment or certain members of staff, we can now go out and source what we think is the best.

"It's so encouraging and we've been really lucky with the owners and the manager, who have both done brilliant jobs, and were so part of this in helping to drive everything forward.

"The manager is meticulous. He leads by example and he's so hard-working and pulls everyone along with him. Just the small things like the photographs after the game. He really brings that