Stewart Kerr

Name: Stewart Kerr

DOB:  13/11/1974

POB: Bellshill

Position: Goalkeeper

Clubs: Celtic, Brighton, Wigan

The tale of a player forced into early retirement is always
a sad one to tell. It happens more often than you’d like, and in the case of
Stewart Kerr, took his career from him at the age of just 27.

Kerr’s career promised much more than it ever delivered, and
largely that can be put down to the injuries that blighted him from his
earliest days. Rated at least alongside, if not ahead of Shay Given during his
youth days at Celtic, Kerr was fully expected to graduate to the first team.
After a brief loan spell at Brighton in the
1994/95 season, Kerr went on to make his full debut, and become first choice
keeper at the club, in the 1996/97 campaign under Tommy Burns.

There were often rumours of Kerr suffering from weight
issues, particularly down to his fondness for a pint, but it was injuries that
cost him more. Knee ligament damage put him out of the 1997/98 season, and as
he fought back from that blow, another and far more serious issue was found.
Kerr had slipped two discs in his back and found surgeons reluctant to operate
on the injury with what was then a relatively new procedure.

Kerr struggled to win back his place in the Celtic team
ahead of Gordon Marshall and Jonathan Gould, and when Martin O’Neill arrived at
the club he was fourth choice. After just a year at the club, O’Neill sold Kerr
to Wigan for £300,000, his time at his boyhood
heroes ending having made just forty appearances over an eight year spell.

Kerr said of the end of his time at Celtic that he was lucky
if he was playing two reserve games every six months, and the move to Wigan was motivated by a chance to play first team
football again. He played eight games under new manager Paul Jewell at the club
who were then in the third tier of the English game, but injury struck again,
and this time for good.

The back injury that he had suffered years earlier at Celtic
flared up in a training session, this time leaving no option but to have the
discs removed from his back. He tried to come back but for every one day of
training he managed, he’d have to rest for the next four or five. A meeting
with his surgeon left Kerr under no illusions, if he continued to play he would
have serious back problems by his mid-thirties. He was left with no choice and
eventually he admitted defeat and retired from the game.

A brief attempt to relaunch his career came at Dunfermline in 2004, but it was short lived and
unsuccessful.

Where is he now? After retiring from the game, Kerr earned
his coaching badges and worked with the youth team at Burnley
under manager Steve Cotterill. He was then appointed full time goalkeeping
coach at Airdrie United in 2008 before moving to Motherwell where he worked
with the likes of John Ruddy and current custodian, Darren Randolph. Kerr left
Motherwell in December 2011 to take up a coaching role with MLS side Toronto
FC, a job he still currently holds.

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