Although I have not seen action on the pitch since I last wrote, I have seen plenty of action off it.

In the summer, with the departure of Richard Jobson from Manchester City, I was elected the club's representative for the players' union, the Professional Footballer's Association (PFA).

You may have seen in the news that the PFA is threatening to call out its members on strike in a dispute over the amount of money the union receives from the screening of live matches.

Our agreement has been that the union should receive five percent of whatever amount is agreed between the television companies and the Football Association, the Premier League and the Nationwide League in which City play.

A deal just agreed should mean that the PFA receives around ?27.5 million, however, what has been offered only amounts to about ?10 million.

After ballots at City and all the other clubs in the country, about 99 percent of players backed PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor's threat to call those involved in televised games out on strike.

A meeting between the organisations involved, which should have been held yesterday, was postponed and it is expected to be held later in the week in the hope that something can be sorted out before matters get much further.

After all, coming out on strike is not something that we would do lightly. At the end of the day, we are employed to play football but the cause is such that it may become necessary.

Unlike some people might think, this is not about getting more money for the players at the top clubs, or even those in our own First Division. It is about helping out those who play in the lower divisions, those who find themselves forced out of the game through injury and need help to find new careers and so forth, players whose salaries are nowhere near those of players in the Premier League.

It is a cause that I am strongly in favour of.

I did one or two courses during my Rotherham days using the PFA to help pay towards the studying. In those days I wasn't earning the money I am now and I needed the union to help fund what I was doing.

Since then I have obviously gone on to play at the very top in the Premier League, but there are many players whose highest level is the same as when I played for Rotherham, whether because they were injured and their career was cut short or they just weren't good enough to go any higher.

The PFA assists those players who have been hurt and will also help those who want to study for up to five years after they have left the game.

It may be that a strike is unnecessary and a compromise can be reached but if we do take industrial action then City could be at the forefront.

The PFA are prepared to wait until November 23 for a deal, which is the day before we play Rotherham at home in front of the cameras. Being one of the biggest clubs in the division we also have a number of other games scheduled to be shown live through the coming months.

You won't be seeing Manchester City players manning picket lines outside Maine Road or anything like that, we just won't be turning out to play.

I understand the clubs involved in televised games will be given a week's notice of any action and when it comes to the day the game should be played the fixture will be postponed.

Some chairmen have come out and said 'we won't pay the players if they go on strike' but the PFA have done their research and looked at the fine print of contracts and although it is true that players can be fined, they can only be fined for that particular televised game. Effectively, that will mean a day's pay - they cannot fine a player a week's wages, for example.

Looking at our schedule it appears we have about five games that are due to be televised, so you are looking at losing a week's wages if the club decides to fine players.

Before this all came out, being a PFA representative involved very little, you kept the players informed of changes etc and maybe handed out a few leaflets - you never had anything as serious as this.

But now it is a hands on job - you have to hold meetings with the lads and you have to explain the situation to them because although the subject is on TV and in the newspapers, that is someone else's opinion and we have to give the PFA's side of it. It has kept me very busy.

While I hope it is all resolved amicably and without the need for a strike, what all this has given me is an insight and an experience of what it is like in the business world - sitting down, having meetings, explaining things to people. It's made me realise there is more to football than just going out and playing on a Saturday and has opened up a whole new avenue for me.