John Byrne is finding his feet in a new career, as Norman Whiteside's sole mate.

The ex-Albion favourite has joined forces with Whiteside to look after the feet and lower limbs of young players, including the Seagulls' stars of tomorrow.

Byrne followed former Manchester United and Northern Ireland forward Whiteside into the field of chiropody and now he is helping him out on behalf of the Professional Footballers' Association.

He was at the training ground at Falmer on Monday for a session with the Albion youngsters.

"It started when I finished playing," said Byrne. "I went to university and did a three-year degree in podiatry, which is basically chiropody, the same degree as Norman has done.

"He has been working with first year boys at the 92 football clubs for the PFA. They do a screening programme to see if they have any gross abnormalities in the lower limb.

"I graduated nearly two and a half years ago now and I have been working in Worthing in the NHS getting experience.

"I specialise in bio-mechanics and Norman rang me up and asked if I would be interested in helping him out by doing the southern clubs.

"I think his workload is getting quite high and it's a good way of sharing the load with ex-players.

"I've got all the other south coast clubs to crack on with as well, Southampton, Portsmouth and Bournemouth. Once I get them out of the way he wants me to do the London clubs.

"It's great for me because it's doing what I've trained to do but also being involved back in football."

It's another example of the advance in football technology since Byrne, a pundit at home games for BBC Southern Counties Radio, played for Albion in three different spells in the 1990's.

"We used to have a chiropodist at Brighton and they have a good one now in Mary Hawkins," he said.

"The type of thing I do, bio-mechanics, has come in with the more scientific approach to the game. Players can get things like shin splints because of an abnormal function of the feet.

"You can also correct things like lower back pain and knee pain with insoles. Basically it's just the way the game is going with dieticians and sports psychologists and now podiatrists coming in as well.

"The only club I ever worked with where we had a podiatrist was Oxford United. That was nearly ten years ago, so things have progressed since then."