When a footballer suffers an injury, the team's physiotherapist treats them. When they're on the move to a new club, their agent takes care of most of the paperwork. Custom boots? There's a guy for that. But what happens when they have no power in their flat, or problems with their car, or simply need advice on a non-footballing matter?

Whatever the issue, it's usually sorted out by the player liaison officer, which has become one of the most important roles at clubs up and down the country, even if many fans are largely unaware of the work going on behind the scenes at all hours of the day, and sometimes night. 

Tracey Smith previously held the position at Hibs, initially on a voluntary basis before being employed by the club, and now runs her own organisation, Player Care and Support Services, which is aimed at providing resources for players and clubs to assist in the various challenges throughout a professional football career. There's not much she hasn't seen, or dealt with, in her line of work. 

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"A lot of it is the operational and admin side of things," she explains. "Like getting visas which, since Brexit, has been a bit of a pain. We did 13 one summer at Hibs so I learned quite a lot about visas and vignettes, which is the sticker that goes in your passport. It can be so complicated. If you're in Australia, it has to go to the Philippines to get the vignette. If you're in Cyprus, it goes to Germany; Portugal, it goes to Madrid. If you've got a player coming from Africa it can be even more complex because a lot of the passport offices are only open twice a week, so you have a limited window to get it all done. And then you've got the manager who wants to get the players in as quickly as possible so that adds to the pressure of getting it all done."

The new priority system does make things easier in terms of signing new players from overseas, with fewer chances for red tape to hold up the process. But there is still a lot to be done in terms of paperwork and meetings, all to secure a player the legal right to live and work in the country. Accommodation is another area where player liaison officers earn their stripes - but it's not as straightforward as identifying an apartment and simply moving the player in.

"It might be that the club is paying for the accommodation, it might be the player depending on the terms of their contract, but it's also about trying to find the right place for them. If they're on their own it adds an extra layer of complexity: if they're going home alone to an empty flat, is it in the right place? Do they feel isolated? Do they have people around them? All these things can have an effect on their mental health and well-being which then has a knock-on effect on how they perform on match days," Tracey adds. 

It's easy to overlook the sheer amount of non-football-related tasks that have to be completed when a club signs a new player - even after personal terms and wages have been thrashed out and international clearance has been ticked off. Many of them are interlinked as well.

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"One of the big things is sourcing a car for players so they can get to training and get about,” Tracey continues. "But if they're going to have a car, they need to have a bank account. So then it's about trying to find a good bank that is perhaps happy to take care of things before the player has a National Insurance number, for example. Once they have their bank account they can get their wages, they can get a car, insurance, and all the off-pitch things like that."

Player liaison can be, and often is, a 24/7 arrangement. Tracey has had early starts and late nights, sometimes completely out of the blue. 

"You've got to have boundaries," she agrees. "But there are times, for example, when there will be no gas, no electricity, no running water, and the player has their family with them, so it's about trying to find out when it's going to be back on and if it's a long time, trying to sort something out for them. These things tend to happen once in a blue moon, but it's very much a 24/7 job because you never know what's going to happen, when it's going to happen, and how it's going to happen. Sometimes there are early airport runs - I remember one occasion when I had to go to the airport at 2.30am, and I eventually got back home at 8pm. So it really is a round-the-clock role."

While player liaison officers can often be called to deal with pretty much anything, Tracey believes that there does come a point where the player needs to learn to help themselves. 

"Things like life skills - you want to help them, but at the same time, they've got to learn it for themselves. So it's okay to help them but you need to show them how to do things, or where to get things they need. If they learn to do it themselves, they're able to do it the next time, because they might not have a player care department, or someone at the club who will show them or who they can speak to. 

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"Or sometimes it might be an issue better dealt with by the coaching staff and while it's fine to listen to them, and show them that you're listening, you'll maybe have to ask them, 'Is this not something you should take up with the manager?'

It's important, of course, for player liaison officers to be unflappable and willing and able to deal with whatever is thrown at them. So, on that note, what's been the most outlandish incident Tracey has had to deal with?

"I think a player leaving their keys in another country, and not realising until they tried to get into their flat in Edinburgh, is probably the funniest," she says, after a pause. "There hasn't been anything too bad - although the no gas, electricity, or running water actually happened to one player."

Every player liaison officer approaches the job differently but the fact that several Hibs players past and present affectionately refer to Tracey as their 'Scottish mum' offers some insight into how she handled the role.

"There are quite often players who have left home for the first time, so the motherly instinct can kick in," she admits. "But when I was at Hibs it was reassuring for the players' parents to know that the club would, and did, step up in an emergency to make sure their child was getting looked after."

Football being a global sport, it's not unusual for clubs to sign players from across the world - even looking at Hibs' recruitment over the last couple of seasons, players have been brought in from Australia, Portugal, Croatia, Belgium, Gambia, France, the Netherlands, the USA, Norway, Fife, Poland, Germany, and Switzerland ranging in age from 18 to 36. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, even if a lot of the issues are similar.

"They're all different people at the end of the day so they have different needs and requirements. I think it's really important to make sure you learn enough about them to make sure that they're comfortable, especially if it's their first time away from home. We used host families at Hibs, and they just treat the players like their own, and that makes such a big difference. That's what you want. You've got to vet them, and make sure they're the right fit, but if you get the right ones, and they're happy to be involved for a long time, you know you can send new players there and they'll be made to feel at home and that's half the battle."

In the week when Jordan Obita spoke about how well his wife and children have settled into Edinburgh being a big factor in his decision to sign a new deal, it's worth remembering that player care extends beyond the footballer and encompasses their family as well.  

"A big part of it is helping the player's family as well. I think it's so important that you help them to settle too, especially if they have relocated from quite far away, or don't speak the language. It extends to matchday as well: making sure they know where they're going, introducing them to people so they're not sitting on their own; if they've got kids trying to introduce them to other people with kids who maybe live nearby so they can meet up at other times and really just helping to create a network for them,” Tracey says. 

"At Hibs it worked really well because the partners had their own WhatsApp group and were really welcoming to new people, and because the dressing room was always so tight-knit, that helped as well. It's often easier for a player to go into a new dressing room because it's their job, and they're used to the moving around, and what's expected of them. But for their partner or family, it can be quite daunting or unnerving doing the same in the players' lounge - even the most confident of girls can find it difficult to go up to people they don't know and speak to them, on their own.

"It's about making sure players feel comfortable, such as learning a bit about their home, their family, things like that, because if they're happy off the pitch, they're happy on the pitch. And that extends to their families as well, because a partner not being happy or feeling a bit isolated can have a real effect, and that filters into the player and has a knock-on effect."

Tracey’s new venture is holding a free event for wives and partners on March 28 at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Edinburgh on Glasgow Road, in a bid to bring together players' other halves and offer them a safe space and a community of like-minded individuals. 

"I think the wives and partners are just as important as the player," she states. "Obviously, the club has invested in that player but if you're investing all that money in a player, you're investing in their well-being as well and that includes their partner or wife," Tracey offers. "If a player's injured or going home frustrated, they might have to make a lot of sacrifices. They might have already have had to give up work, or relocate and move away from their family and friends, so they deal with a lot of the same highs and lows as the player as well as being their biggest support as well.

"I believe it's important for them to have a network where they can meet people in the same situation, where everyone understands what they're going through, but without the WAG stereotype because they are just normal people and they go through the same stuff that we go through."

Tracey is hopeful that Player Care and Support Services can, as part of its short and long-term aims, help smaller clubs that may lack the finances or personnel to provide the same level of assistance as bigger clubs for players.

"A lot of clubs might not have the budget so they have a couple of members of staff in other positions who do the player liaison stuff in addition, but then there isn't a dedicated person to look after players. That was one of the reasons for setting up Player Care and Support Services. I don't think budgets should be a barrier - we're allowing two clubs to work with us each year for no cost, with no obligation beyond that year, but we might be able to help them set up their own system which works for them or assist them in what they can offer players. And even that could make a big, big difference."