ROCK ON

Some footballers were just quintessentially rock 'n' roll, be they music buffs, style icons or hellraisers – or all of the above...

- Words Chris Flanagan

FRANK WORTHINGTON

At Baileys nightclub in Leicester in 1975, Frank Worthington dressed up as Elvis Presley (below) and belted out the hits of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll.

The iconic forward worshipped Elvis, and did his best to emulate his lifestyle throughout a career in which he scored more than 250 goals and was idolised pretty much everywhere he went.

Hailing from Halifax and starring for Huddersfield, Worthington defied the stereotype of the no-nonsense northerner. He displayed sublime skills on the pitch and lived a flamboyant life off it, turning up for an England Under-23s match in cowboy boots.

When a 1972 transfer to Liverpool collapsed after Worthington was found to have high blood pressure, Bill Shankly sent him off to Majorca for a week to sort himself out. How did he use the time? He consorted with five different women, including a former Miss Great Britain, before returning to Merseyside with even higher blood pressure and duly failing the medical again.

A notorious womaniser - he did name his autobiography One Hump Or Two? - Worthington admitted, “I was living a bit too much in the fast lane.” Not always heading in the right direction, either: he had four court appearances in a year due to his driving, including one U-turn on the motorway in his Ford Mustang.

Defenders had no more of a clue which way he was going. After starring for Leicester, he scored a memorable goal for Bolton against Ipswich when he picked up the ball with his back to goal outside the area, juggled it, flicked it over his own head and the head of a bamboozled Terry Butcher, and then volleyed it into the net, all in one motion.

Trotters boss Ian Greaves labelled him ‘the working man's George Best’.