PARALYSED former professional footballer Gary Parkinson has been given a role scouting for his home town club — despite only being able to communicate with a system of blinks.

Mr Parkinson has been rating potential transfer targets for Middlesbrough after the Championship club’s manager, Tony Mowbray, moved to help his former team-mate in his recovery from lockedin syndrome.

Garyn, who also played for Bolton Wanderers and still lives in the town, has been receiving specialist care at the Priory Highbank Centre, a rehabilitation unit in Bury, since September last year, watches DVDs he is sent by the club.

He then gives his opinion on whether the players in action should be pursued.

Together with his wife, Deborah, he has devised a ratings system that enables him to give a verdict on individual players.

Mrs Parkinson, aged 43, said: “When Tony first came to see Gary, he could see that Gary was still aware of everything that was going on around him, so he asked him if he would like to do some scouting for him.”

If Gary really likes a player, he raises his eyelids to look up when Deborah goes through a scale of one to four with him.

If he looks up when she says “one”, he is not impressed and Boro are advised not to push for a deal.

Deborah relays the message back to Mowbray, who uses the information to come to a final decision on players from around the world with the rest of his backroom team.

“A DVD is sent to us together with a sheet of paper which has a description of the player, his name, age, position and the clubs he has played for,” said Mrs Parkinson.

“Gary still loves football, knows all about youth football from his time as the youth team coach at Blackpool, and you can see his mood picks up when he is doing it.

“I have done it with him and so has my son, Luke.”

The 43-year-old was initially confined to his bed following a stroke in his brain stem.

But there have been improvements.

He has been for day visits to his home, while there are hopes he will get his speech back after an operation on his vocal chords.

Mr Mowbray, speaking in Middlesbrough’s match-day programme on Saturday, said: “We were determined to give Gary a role, where he could feel involved. Not only that, I genuinely value his opinions about the game.

“We let him have a look at some of the players who come to our attention and it gives Gary something to concentrate on.”