'Nobody can get hold of him' - what happened to David Batty?

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,

David Batty won 42 caps for England

By

Newcastle United reporter

Dozens of phones buzzed across the globe.

Rio Ferdinand, Mark Viduka, Jason Wilcox, even former manager David O'Leary were among those alerted to new messages in their Leeds United WhatsApp group last month.

It was David Batty's 57th birthday.

Only no-one who shared a dressing room with the ex-midfielder had the slightest idea where he was.

"I don't think anyone has seen him since we played together," Viduka said. "Everyone was wishing him happy birthday – but he's not even in the group."

To say Batty has kept a low profile since retiring in 2004 would be an understatement.

A series of amusing rumours have spread over the years as a result, amid claims Batty has become a superbike champion under a fake name, trained to be a master butcher and gone off grid to live in a caravan.

The reality is a little different, but this was someone who was never going to stay involved with the game.

Batty's agent, Hayden Evans, knew that better than most.

"It was clear from day one that he would never go into coaching, for example, and never seek that as a route back into football," he said.

"David has been as good as his word, which is him through and through.

"He always said, 'When I retire, that will be it. I won't have anything to do with the football industry'."

So, as two of his former clubs, Newcastle United and Leeds, meet on Wednesday night, just what happened to Batty?

'He was as tough as nails'

It is a question that has been repeatedly asked.

Not least at the various reunions to mark Leeds' title triumph in 1992 or Blackburn Rovers' Premier League win three years later.

Batty was involved in both of those landmark achievements, but ex-Blackburn midfielder Mark Atkins has not caught up with him since their playing days.

"We have tried to get him to the dos we have had, but nobody can get hold of him," he said.

"He's not that type of person. Even if he was living five miles away, he wouldn't turn up because he's a very personal guy, really."