Murphy promoted to Arsenal Lead Performance Physio after Forest u-turn
Murphy joined Arsenal in July 2021
Written by Simon Austin — October 19, 2022
SIMON MURPHY has been promoted to Lead Performance Physio by Arsenal after turning down the opportunity to join Nottingham Forest as Head Physio.
In July, TGG reported that Murphy had joined newly-promoted Forest as replacement for the outgoing Neil Simms. Indeed, he was serving his notice with Arsenal, had already attended meetings at Forest and their staff had been informed of his joining.
However, subsequent uncertainty over the future of manager Steve Cooper - plus a counter-offer from Arsenal, led by manager Mikel Arteta - led him to change his mind. Now Murphy has been promoted from Senior Physio to Lead Performance Physio and took up the new job title this month.
The situation is reminiscent of that of Arsenal Head of Medical Gary O’Driscoll, who elected to remain with the Gunners in 2020 after initially agreeing to join Liverpool. Again, Arteta had been pivotal in persuading him to stay.
Murphy had worked for Leicester City for seven years - latterly as their Head Physio - before joining Arsenal in the summer of 2021.
The upshot of all of this is that Forest are still without a Head Physio. The role has been unfilled since the summer, when Simms left after five years to join Southampton as their Lead Performance Physio.
Forest are short of numbers in their medical and performance department in general, with Portuguese first-team physio Luis Pinho also having left in the summer to join Tottenham.
