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Having signed for Reading from Manchester United things were going well for Chris until Boxing Day 1999 and a game against Cardiff at Ninian Park. With just twenty minutes of the game gone he was involved in a clash with Cardiff’s Richard Carpenter (now at Brighton) and was immediately substituted.
His leg was shattered and he suffered a double fracture of the shin, a ruptured ankle and cruciate ligament damage and despite a series of operations he finally left Reading after failing to recover.
Last season he was back in the spotlight during the early rounds of the FA Cup as coach of Team Bath but he has recently had another operation to take some metal out of his leg and to do a bone graft as he makes another effort to resurrect his playing career.
With this in mind, and a wish to return north to be closer to his family, Chris has resigned as coach of Team Bath and is hoping that he can get his playing career back on the road at the age of 28.
That could see him following in the footsteps of his dad who wore the Claret and Blue with such distinction from 1967 until 1976 after he himself suffered a cruciate ligament injury at the hands of Norman Hunter two years earlier.
Chris said, "Until I see the specialist I don't know if I'll play again but Burnley have offered me the chance to go there. It all depends if I'm fit and at present nothing is sorted."
This is almost certainly Stan offering Chris an opportunity to train with us and hopefully get fit and if he succeeds then who knows we could just see him in a Claret & Blue shirt in the future.
