Michael Keane said his commitment to play through injury to help his team stems from a desire to strengthen the Everton dressing room.
The centre-back has played through knocks and illness on various occasions for the Blues. That willingness to put his body on the line has had differing consequences but his instinct has always been the same – to try and support the squad.
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And the motivation comes not from trying to earn plaudits from outside the camp but for attempting to gain trust within it, he explained.
High-profile examples of the England international fighting through the pain barrier include the 5-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur under Frank Lampard.
It was a game in which a sick Keane put through his own net as Everton slumped to a heavy loss.
Another saw him battle through a knock to help the Blues to a useful draw at Leicester City under Sean Dyche last season. It was a match in which Dyche’s side fell under heavy pressure in atrocious conditions in the second half.
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Keane’s fortunes at the club have been turbulent but even when he has endured long spells on the sidelines, his teammates have never questioned his professionalism.
The 33-year-old has in fact become a key player at Finch Farm. A calmer presence than some of the bigger characters in the dressing room, he has helped Dwight McNeil overcome the difficulties of his move to Crystal Palace falling through in February and is Vitalii Mykolenko’s ‘go-to’ chess partner.
His willingness to go above and beyond is part of that wider desire to knit the team together.
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He told the ECHO: “If you had to be 100% to play a game, I don’t think a lot of lads would play, if you know what I’m trying to say. It’s very rare that you’re going on to a pitch at 100%.
“Sometimes you feel a lot worse than other days. But I’ve always been someone who wants to try. There are players out there who, if they feel something, they shy away from it if they’re not 100%.
“But I always try and give it a go and I think that also gets you respect from the players as well.
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“I’m not bothered about how that looks from the outside, a lot of people don’t know that stuff. But within the camp, with your team-mates and that, people see that: ‘Oh, he’ll fight for us, we want him here’.”
A version of this interview first appeared in Joe Thomas’ Royal Blue newsletter, which can be found here