Lara Day, Towers physio, tell us about yourself:
I'm from South Africa, here to develop my skills (taking British money) and to find a rich British husband. The trouble is I have 11 older brothers basically (the team!) and I’ll never be allowed to date a basketball player, they are never good enough. “You can’t like him he’s got too big a nose….” And that’s if they catch me just looking at one of the other teams players. It’s in my contract that I can’t date a Towers player.

Isn’t it satisfying, massaging players thighs?  Always smelling of Deep heat? At the end of the game at Newcastle I had to be escorted from the court by Jerome and Sam. The players thought I was crying with emotion because they’d just won the game in overtime. They were all patting me on the back and telling me how well I’d become part of the team but I just couldn’t see a thing because of the Deep Heat I’d just rubbed in my eyes.

As a woman around the team do you find you take on the mother role?
Lara: They never take any of my advice though I give them a lot of it. They’re free to give me advice all the time and they are very willing to give it.

Sam: Lara does have lots of opinions.

Is sharing a house with players difficult?
Sam: We aren’t the tidiest of people.
Lara: They don’t know what a kettle is or how to use a washing machine is.

But don’t they eat healthily and look after their bodies?
Lara: Pizza, pizza and peanut butter every day, that’s pretty much all they eat.

Lara: We have 2 Playstations in the house – they have a basketball and they shrink the players in the other team.

Sam : I’m always the yeti. If Michael gets a new game he’ll disappear for five days at a time. We use it to play DVDs on as well.  We’re not like Rod and James, they play all the time.

Lara: Ben and Sam have this little soldier dance they do.

Sam: I have a Beyonce dance too. The number of times I’ve had urges to go out on court with the cheerleaders. During timeouts if you stand facing a certain way you can listen to Robbie and see what they are doing as well.

Playing and studying?
I did do some studying, now I’ve finished. I did sports science, all 5 of us in the house did that together. It ended up in a presentation. We put it together in 3 hours the night before. The American guys talked about baseball and American football and nobody understood a word they said so we ended up getting the best grade on the course. All I was allowed to do was press ‘play’ on the video, that’s all they trusted me with.Sometimes the juniors get a little over enthusiastic, and one time when I was more overweight than I am now I trod on Sully’s hand. He did confirm it wasn’t my fault, he told me it wasn’t. He still plays me 1 on 1 - and beats me!

The players work hard for you when you get to play:
Every time I go on the team do everything they can to make me feel really comfortable, tapping me on the back and giving me the ball. Sometimes they try to give it to me too much and I don’t want to look too out of place. We don’t get too many moments on court and we really appreciate how they make us feel part of the team.

Do you learn a lot in practise?
That’s the most fun, going against them in practise. If I can force one turnover I feel I’m achieving something, pushing them. We still work on free throw shooting regularly.

Lara is our most improved free throw shooter this season, she started off not being able to hit the rim.

How did you get to be the Towers physio?
I originally did aromatherapy, and worked at a gym. A rugby team trained at the gym and asked me to work with them. Don’t ask who’s harder to work with. It’s a completely different atmosphere here, apart from 5 minutes before a game.

I don’t have a favourite player, I have a 'flavour of the week' and it’s the player that doesn’t bother me too much that week. Sometimes I really have to work for my money.

Lara: Now I’m hitting threes(with a bit of luck) but I can’t do too well or I’ll show the rest of the team up. I’m normally the ball girl, I just have to remember to keep my head up. I’ve been dazed a few times.

Sam: Lara is very good at inflicting injuries on herself, she burnt her hand….

Lara: You weren’t much help, couldn’t even remember if it was hot or cold water you put burns under.

Sam: I’m not a trained mechanic err medical person!

Sam, what are your plans for the future?
I’m not getting my hopes up, thinking small at the moment. This year has been so fantastic. If I can do have another shot next season I will be delighted. If not I’ll look for other things, hopefully in the world of basketball as that’s my main interest apart from fast cars.

I got into basketball when I was 10. I bought a video of Shaquille O’Neill playing with my pocket money and that started it off for me. At secondary school I played and was scouted to train with England Cadet Coach Chris Morgan twice a week. I played for the London Leopards Under 18s then moved to Towers under 20s playing for Gary Lyttle. My parents have been great, my dad would come home from work, drive me to training, wait for me and drive me back again. My mum has always made sure I’ve had good food.

Lara: She still does.

Sam: I still phone her up and give her my shopping list: cheese, pies, peanut butter and crèam eggs. I’ve only just stopped being a teenager! I have lost loads of weight, trouble is, I’ve swapped all my fatty foods for sugary foods so now I just get hyper.

Lara: I work a 14 hour day and come home to you ‘boys’ zapping around.

The physio bag contains an amazing collection of things: Gum, contact lenses, Halls, hairbands for Jerry, superglue for Jerry’s shoes as they always fall apart, nail clippers, chocolate for Robbie, jellybabies for Sully, batteries for Rod's CD player. Even barbecue sauce because they charge for it at MacDonalds now. I have a kiddies meal because when we order as a group they eat it before I can even get near it but it’s easier to spot a kiddies meal.

Sam: I always try to sit by Lara when we’re eating as she never finishes her food so she passes it to me.

Lara: On the plane they all want to sit by me as I’m the small one.