We’re picking up a few injuries at the moment and Andriy Yarmolenko’s ruptured Achilles tendon against Spurs was a bad one.

As the club captain, I feel my job is to support players at times like that, so I popped in to see him in hospital on Tuesday. His wife and family were there, but I spent a couple of hours with them, just having a chat and a laugh. He’s a good lad, but when you’re new, not only to a club but a country, it can be tough.

Yarmo was absolutely devastated, it’s his profession, his life. The surgeon came in when I was there and apparently the operation went really well. I was even able to act as an emergency interpreter between them.

I’ve been lucky with injuries so far, although I’m not keen on talking too much about that and tempting fate.

I look after myself, but sometimes you have to be lucky as well. I’ve had a few weeks injured here and there, but if you look at the statistics over the last 13 years, I’ve played, on average, around 25-30 games a season, which shows you I haven’t had much time off.

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That’s great, but when you’re getting a bit older, it does take a bit of a toll.

In team sports, one man’s disaster is another man’s opportunity and I thought young Grady Diangana did really well when he came on, especially in such a big game.

At the end of the day, injuries will happen and that’s why you have a squad.

I still remember something Chris Powell, who is manager at Southend now but who played for us for a time, taught me when I was a young player like Grady and had just broken into the team. I had done well and our next game was at home to Derby, but manager Alan Pardew told me I wasn’t playing. I think he was trying to protect me a little bit, but I was gutted.

I turned up for the match, opened my locker in the dressing room and Chris had left me one of those yellow Post-it notes, which read: ‘Always be ready.’

Pards brought me on early against Derby because of an injury and I got the man-of-the-match award. I’ve never forgotten that message and I like to think I’ve taken his advice. If you’re not picked, don’t sulk, don’t be upset, be ready, because your chance will come.

We’re at Leicester tomorrow and the corresponding game near the end of last season brings back good memories.

I scored one of the goals in a 2-0 win and the accumulation of how important the goal was and the goal itself probably made it the best in my career so far.

The win gave us that bit of a cushion and effectively made us safe in the Premier League. We played so well that day as well, we fully deserved to win and after that we drew with Manchester United and then beat Everton.

The home defeat by Spurs on Saturday was disappointing, especially since we feel we deserved something from the game. Inconsistency is a problem at the moment, but apart from the top six, that’s the rest of the League in a nutshell.

Teatime kick-off just means lots of hanging around

We’re away to Leicester on Saturday at 5.30pm and, to be honest, I wasn’t aware of the kick-off time until earlier this week.

We’ve had six games on TV this season and that inevitably means a lot of different dates and times, but that’s the way it is.

It does mean subtle changes in preparation, though, and I have to admit that 5.30pm is probably my least favourite kick-off time... there’s a lot of hanging around. It can be even trickier for the fans, who have to arrange transport to and from venues.

I don’t mind the early kick-offs because there’s not so much waiting time. You get up, have your breakfast and you’re ready to play.

It is what it is, though, and you get used to it. The important thing is to prepare properly and be ready.

No matter what time we kick off, this is an important week for us.

We have three games in a week, with Leicester followed by a Carabao Cup tie against Spurs and then Burnley at home the following weekend.

We’ve played five of the top six already and now we’re approaching a series of games before Christmas, apart from Manchester City, where we would be looking to pick up plenty of points.

The squad have been affected by a series of injuries but we added numbers during the summer and we’re playing well enough.