IT’S NO exaggeration to say Dave Challinor’s hands used to terrify Championship and Premier League defences.

With the ball in those palms, the Tranmere centre-back was able to hurl throw-ins record-breaking distances, putting the opposition goalmouth under threat from just about any point to be on the halfway line.

Challinor’s throws, delivered with the accuracy of a guided missile, played a significant part in propelling John Aldridge’s Rovers team through a succession of giant-killing cup wins just under a decade ago. Tranmere made it all the way to Wembley for the Worthington Cup final of 2000.

These days you will find Challinor learning to turn those hands to healing.

He is midway through the second year of a four-year degree course in physiotherapy which, he hopes, will help him return to a full-time career in football.

“I want to stay in the game for as long as I can,” Challinor says. “I still want that buzz of a Saturday afternoon. I’m not done with it yet.”

The 33-year-old from the Wirral was forced to give up playing as a full-time professional this summer, when what he thought to be a routine knee injury became seriously problematic.

“I picked up the injury playing for Bury in November of last season,” Challinor explained. “It did not seem too bad, just a tear in the cartilage. I tried to come back and played a few games but it kept swelling up.”

Even after being released by Bury at the end of last season, Challinor was optimistic enough about the future to turn down an opportunity to play part-time with Altrincham, in the hope of securing a full-time contract elsewhere.

He came back to train with Tranmere for a week during the summer. “That’s when the knee just ballooned up,” Challinor recalled. “So we had some investigations done and I was told I was looking at surgery that would keep me out for six months and there was still no guarantee that it would solve the problem.

“I was advised to play part-time and manage it as much as possible. That’s what I’m doing now. It was a difficult decision but one that had to be taken.”

For the moment, Challinor is playing part-time for Colwyn Bay, while working and studying for the degree. “Basically you need to get 1,000 practical hours in, which means getting into hospitals. That’s why it takes a long time,” he says.

If that wasn’t enough, Challinor is also doing work for Educational Special Projects Ltd (ESP) a company that produces school playground equipment and puts down markings in playgrounds to help children develop multi skills.

Challinor says: “I’m teaching the teachers how to put on sessions for the kids. We are hoping to get involved in football and we are already working in rugby league with Leeds Rhinos. It could be very exciting if it takes off and I think it will.”

Challinor’s working life is now busier than it has ever been.

He says: “I am working the football and the ESP around my degree. There are a lot of things going on at the moment and I don’t have much time but it helps that our children are at school now.

“It’s a bit of a change around from being a full-time player when you have a lot of free time. It makes you realise what a comfortable life professional footballers have.”

The sudden change in lifestyle does not prevent Challinor looking back with gratitude on the career of close to 500 league and cup games for Tranmere, Stockport and Bury.

“I think most professional players these days realise how lucky they are and I am certainly one of those,” he says. “Being forced to retire is a bit of a difficult pill to swallow but a lot of players have had to drop out of football earlier than I did.”

The knee condition does not allow Challinor to train. He said: “It’s a case of playing, getting through the game and playing again. With Colwyn Bay it is two games a week almost all of the time. Clubs at this level are in about four different cup competition, so the schedule is relentless.”

Challinor has found himself in demand from the media over the other recent weeks, partly because Stoke City’s Rory Delap is launching long throws into a new generation of Premier League defences these days.

“It’s been a bit of a throwback for me,” says Challinor, without a twinkle of irony in his eye.

“The big modern stadiums of today are ideal if you want to take a long throw because the seating is so far away from the pitch. At Colwyn Bay I have got a run-up of about one yard.”

Even so, the long throw has rarely produced such spectacular benefits than when used in the fairly tight confines of Prenton Park. As the likes of Coventry, West Ham, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Bolton, Leeds and Southampton found out. All of them fell victim to John Aldridge’s team in the major cup competitions between 1999 and 2001.

Challinor recalls: “We did not practise them too much because we had a method that was successful and we stuck to it.

“We had players who could get goals in the box from them, like Clint Hill, Wayne Allison and Ned Kelly and if defenders cleared to the edge of the penalty area, then Nick Henry and Alan Mahon could get goals from there.

“Once we had scored a few goals with the throw, a lot of teams became scared and that fear factor helped us.

“It was getting highlighted in the media and that was probably to the detriment of some of the good players we had in the side. But no minded too much because of the media attention worked in our favour.”

No rival manager complained louder about the throw the Bolton’s Sam Allardyce.

Challinor recalls: “There was a fierce rivalry with Bolton and there seem to be a bit of trouble between Aldo and Big Sam.

“But as soon as Bolton got into the Premier League they were using the long throw themselves. It went full circle.”

Challinor identifies the Worthington Cup semi-final second leg against Bolton in January 2000 as highlight of his career.

He recalls: “We were already a goal up from the first leg and scored twice in the opening 20 minutes. We knew we were going to Wembley from that point.

“There was a fantastic atmosphere at Prenton Park that night and after half-time, when we were for goals ahead, there was no pressure on us.

“That second-half just flew by. It was pure enjoyment.

“I’ll looking back on that the rest of my life.”