As a youngster, you were a very talented swimmer. Was there ever a chance of you going down that route instead of football?
I got to second in the country when I was 14. I was training two hours before school and two hours after. Then I got a shoulder injury and saw a physio who said, “You can keep going and have an arthritic shoulder by the time you’re 25, or you can stop.” I was also at a stage when I was trying to concentrate on my school life. I focused a little more on other sports, and one of them was football.
How did you come to sign for Blackburn?
I was just playing for my school team and a guy
