A Sidcup massage therapist has been chosen to tend to athletes at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Jackie Earl is part of the Clyde-siders who, like the Games Makers of London 2012, are volunteers enlisted to help the games run smoothly.

In Jackie’s case she will be tending to the bodies of elite athletes who have spent years training for what could be just one brief intense flurry of competition.

She said: “It is different treating them compared to normal people as they have spent four years of their lives preparing for this one event.

“This means that as well as looking after their physical needs you have to recognise their mindset and all the blood and sweat that has gone into this one performance.

News Shopper:

Shopper on the slab (WITH shorts on). 

“You have to be aware that they will be really revved up so I won’t be saying something like ‘that bit looks stuck’ if they’ve got a minor problem.

“They are meant to be putting in the performance of their lives so psychologically it could put a block on them.”

Jackie will be tending to boxers and netballers at the games.

She is training for a level six qualification equivalent to a degree level and works from her home in Marlborough Park Avenue.

She said: “Physiotherapists make orthopaedic assessments, treat people with conditions and give them rehabilitation exercises. “I’m more of a soft tissue specialist who helps people get out of pain.

News Shopper:

Photographer Osman Deen took advantage of Jackie's expertise. 

“I work with fascia which is connective tissue which runs through the body a bit like a spider’s web.

“They reckon if you could dissolve everything in the body and just leave the fascia we would still be able to recognise each other.”

As News Shopper can attest Jackie certainly knows her stuff, really working over one dodgy ex-rugby playing shoulder in just one short session.

She even found time to tend to a photographer’s gluteus problem caused by leaving his wallet in his pocket while driving.

It seems you don’t have to be Usain Bolt benefit from a bit of massage therapy.

Visit jackieearl.co.uk