Saturday marks a special anniversary for me because, 15 years ago to the day, I made my senior debut, in a League Cup first-round tie against Southend.

Does it seem 15 years ago? No, longer to be honest! If you had said to me when I was 14 years old that I could play just one game in the Premier League, I would have taken it like a shot.

In fact, I’ve played 485 games, including a couple of loan spells early on, and I’m still hungry for many more.

To accumulate almost 500 games in a decade and a half means I’m averaging more than 30 per season and I’m proud of that. Yes, I have been fortunate with injuries, but there are other factors — mentality and lifestyle, for example.

Many top midfielders have been bought by the club during those years, yet my mentality has never changed. I’ve always thought, ‘If fit, I’m playing every week — there’s no way I am letting anyone else take this shirt’.

I’m 32 now but I still get nervous before every training session and that’s because I want to be the best player out there. I’ll have that attitude until my final game as a player and I suppose it’s a fear of failure which drives me on.

It’s the same with anything — golf, table tennis. If I’m on my way to play a round of golf there is an anxiety in me, a feeling of “I can’t lose today”. I know that might sound strange but it has served me well over those past 15 years. Fortunately, my calf problem has cleared up so, if selected against Watford tomorrow, that will take me one game nearer the 500 mark.

When I started playing there was no Twitter or Instagram and Facebook had only just been launched. Now things are very different.

Phil Neville, the England women’s coach, has suggested that professional footballers come off social media following the racist abuse which Paul Pogba received this week.

It’s a valid argument and it’s plain to see there is a problem. I have a private Instagram account and I only have that because I have friends and family who want to see some photos of the kids. To be honest, I rarely go on it. With regard to Twitter, again, I rarely go on it. Yes, I am sure I have taken plenty of stick on Twitter but, honestly, I never click on that stuff to find out. Some of the players here love it but I’m not one of them.

Social media can be so deceptive. For example, you can get a player who trains hard every day on the pitch and doesn’t post a thing on social media and then you get someone filming themselves in the gym for three minutes and posting, ‘Been working extremely hard today and can’t wait for the weekend’.

It can become a bit of an addiction but one thing is certain and that is there is no excuse for the sort of racist stuff which Pogba had to put up with. It’s just cowardice, really.

Watford will be hard but that’s nothing unusual as they run their socks off. My pet hate is being beaten by a team who work harder than you do and we mustn’t let that happen tomorrow.

I took risk of putting Marko on the spot

The gaffer puts the name of the penalty taker on the board before every game at our club so there is no confusion.

I’m our designated penalty taker, but last weekend, for example, I was injured so Chicharito’s name would have been up there.

Paul Pogba came in for criticism for deciding to take one for Manchester United against Wolves on Monday, rather than Marcus Rashford, but early last season, I let Marko Arnautovic take a penalty against Bournemouth.

I just felt it is always so important that your strikers get on the scoresheet as soon as they can, even if it’s from the spot. There’s nothing worse, for a front man, than going a few games without scoring.

Luckily for me, he scored because, if he had missed it, I would have come in for ‘shed loads’. It was a risk, but I felt it was vital he got off the mark.