Walsham-le-Willows centre-back Ian Miller has no plans to retire

The coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on the footballing world, both professionally and at non-league level.

For some, impending retirement from the game will mean that they have potentially already laced up their boots for the last time, such is the uncertainty as to when lower-league football can safely return.

However, one player that has no plans to call it a day just yet is Walsham-le-Willows centre-back Ian Miller.

Aged 36 and with his 442 Football Academy to run, Miller could have used this enforced break to bring an end to his career.

But the former professional is feeling in good shape, and believes there is still plenty of football ahead of him at Walsham.

“I will still be carrying on playing and coaching at Walsham,” said Miller, who made more than 250 professional appearances for the likes of Darlington, Grimsby Town and Cambridge United.

“A lot of former professionals say that their brain tells them one thing and then the body says something different, but I don’t feel that. There are no major aches or pains on a Sunday morning after a Saturday game.

“The only real issue at the moment is we don’t know when we can get going again.

“If we knew it was going to be July then I could make sure I was ready, but at the moment all we can do is keep ourselves ticking along.”

Miller got his big move from non-league football to the professional game in 2006 when Ipswich Town signed him from Bury Town.

It is a switch replicated by Ross Crane just last week, while another youngster well known to Miller – Liam Bennett – has joined Cambridge United from Isthmian League North Division outfit AFC Sudbury.

The ongoing health crisis looks set to impact on Football League clubs’ finances for years to come, and so Miller believes more semi-professional players could make similar jumps in the future as cloths are cut accordingly.

“Non league is full of players that perform well at the levels they are playing at, but what you have to factor in is they are doing that on the back of an eight-hour shift on a building site or working in an office,” said the three-time Wembley final winning captain.

“They train once a week – twice maybe in some cases – and probably are not eating properly.

“But if you put them into an environment where they are training every day, getting the right guidance in terms of fitness and food, the arc of the improvement will be there for all to see.

“A lot of clubs are not going to have massive wage bills after this, so it could well make sense for them to invest in a lad from non league. That has got to be a better bet than giving someone a big signing on fee and he doesn’t deliver or gets injured – that is a lot of money thrown away.

“Lads from the non-league game are going to have plenty of hunger as well. I had that when I joined Ipswich, I felt like I had to prove I belonged there.

“I know both Ross and Liam and they will have that hunger as well.

“They are decent lads and good players who have as good a chance as players that have been in the academy system since the age of seven or eight.”

* For more on Miller’s 442 Academy, search @442footballacademy on Facebook or email ian@442.academy