'It was my birthday and I scored the winner, but it wasn’t enjoyable at all'

He didn’t emerge for the second half of the game, but little did anybody know then his career was all but over. Ironically, he was replaced by Dan Gosling - who also suffered a career-ending injury later that same season. The current Hornets head coach played only 19 minutes more, as a substitute against Blackburn the following February, before deciding to hang up his boots.

Ironically, he was due to start against Burnley in the game after that Blackburn run-out but was injured in the warm-up and never played again. So, seeing Burnley back at Vicarage Road is bound to evoke memories for Cleverley of that Friday night win on August 12, 2022. “It was my birthday, it was my last start in professional football and I scored the winning goal so it was a significant game on a few fronts,” he said.



“The moment after I scored that goal is a little bit misunderstood: I didn’t get injured scoring,” Cleverley added, referring to him gingerly getting up after netting and then his teammates gesturing to the bench. “I cut my knee scoring the goal, but that was a minor thing. “I knew throughout the whole half that my Achilles was in a really bad way.

I never played through so much pain as I did that night. “I knew I needed surgery after that game. “So when you see me in pain after scoring it was the bang to the knee, but I had played the game through gritted teeth because of the Achilles injury.

“As a professional footballer who has had injury problems, you always try and get to half-time. “You don’t want to hear the groan of the crowd because your number has gone up again. “I did everything I could to get to half-time that night: it was my birthday and I scored the winner, but it wasn’t enjoyable at all.

” Having had more than his fair share of injury problems which ultimately curtailed his playing career earlier than he would have wished, does that mean Cleverley has increased empathy with players he sees in a similar predicament? “Yeah absolutely it does,” he replied. “You have demands of players during their rehabs and you want to push them to come back stronger, but someone like Kevin Keben I have massive empathy with. “You could see he’s a good player in the games he started for us.

“I can see how hard he wants it and how hard he is working, and I know he needs a little bit of luck.”.