Tyrone Mings

Since I have been called up I think I have heard from everyone I have ever come into contact with in football, which is nice. Everyone has played their own part in my development and has a story to tell on my journey.

In moments of difficulty there are positives you can take and lessons you can learn.

If you are in any position of influence, then it’s almost your duty to try to help. If people don’t have the ability or opportunity to help themselves, then sometimes it’s got to come from someone who can."

Me and my girlfriend don’t have any family in Ipswich, so we were thinking of what we could do to fill our time on Christmas Day. We thought about feeding the homeless and we phoned up the church that we eventually went to and asked if we could help."

If you make one thing your life and soul - as much as football is my career and main focus - then it turns into a very mentally unstable place to be.

I do speak to a few people in non-league. There are a few people in Bristol where my family is based that I used to play with at Yate.

I have never pulled a muscle and I don’t see myself as a person who needs to try and stay fit. I just need to play games and you can never replicate that in training.

I’ve got two discs at the bottom of the back that are quite badly damaged, that obviously happened over a period of time, and there’s inflammation on one of the vertebrae as well, which has come from the angle of my pelvis and spine."

I was in an academy from the age of eight. I couldn’t play for my grassroots team then.

I lived in a homeless shelter. That’s what I mean when I say I’ve been in situations where people need help. I don’t remember my exact age, but I remember there were two bunk beds and five of us in there: me, my three sisters and my mum."

I couldn’t see playing for England at all. I had other goals at the time when I was a mortgage advisor and had different goals when I was playing non-league football.