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Ashley Williams has insisted he’s in no mood to copy the life of Ryan after revealing how surgeons ordered him to wear a rugby-style scrum cap at Spurs.

Swansea City star Williams has explained how he considered asking friend and former Wales and Ospreys No.8 Ryan Jones to use his trademark headgear after doctors told him he had no choice but to safeguard a head wound for the midweek clash at Tottenham.

But the centre-back wants to lose it in time for the Swans’ next clash against Liverpool on Monday after giving a hat-tip to old boss Brendan Rodgers.

Williams led Garry Monk’s men out at White Hart Lane wearing the scrum cap after cutting his head in training.

And he re-opened the gash and needed to be bandaged up in the previous weekend’s win over Burnley.

The defender said: “I won’t be wearing one again — I can tell you that.

Opened up

“I cut my head open in training and it opened again in the Burnley game. It’s quite wide, so the doctor referred me to the surgeon and he advised that I needed to wear it for at least one game.

“I didn’t want to wear it, but I just did what they told me to do to make sure it didn’t get any worse. I don’t want it to keep splitting open.

I’ve borrowed a few things from Ryan Jones over the years, his shoulder pads and this and that and I did jokingly say I would have one of his, but they got it from the shop instead.

“We had a few options, the one that Wayne Rooney wore with a band on and another one. They didn’t work for me, so this one was the best option.

“It wasn’t very comfortable and I won’t be wearing it again. It wasn’t very nice. It was hot and I couldn’t hear very well.”

Williams may have well been tempted to stick with the scrum cap for superstitious reasons had Swansea managed to continue their recent winning run in midweek. As it was, a second-half period that saw Tottenham grab two goals and the control of the game proved enough to secure a 3-2 win despite a late comeback in which Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris needed to perform heroics to stop a point-snatching Federico Fernandez header.

“In the second half we lost a bit of belief really,” reflected Williams. “They got the goal from a ricochet and they scored again which was a bit unfortunate and it took us a while to get back into the game

“We rallied a bit and if the game had have gone on we probably would have got an equaliser – but I’m not sure we did enough to get something against a good side that played very well. We showed some good character, but we didn’t play for the full 45 minutes in the second half, which was disappointing.

“But we’ve got a bit of a break before the next game so we’ll re-evaluate and see where we are.”

Where Swansea are is theoretically safe and searching for new goals in terms of their season. A record points haul and an outside chance of Europe – not to mention the need to bury the ghosts of the 2012/2013 season fall-off where only one win followed the 40-point mark – should see no let-up at the Liberty.

With more than a week to build up to the visit of Liverpool in what promises to be a fascinating encounter under the lights, there should be no need for motivation against the Merseyside men.

Nothing to prove

And Williams, 30, was at pains to point out that there’s no need to go looking to prove anything against the Reds, despite suffering a 4-1 rout at Anfield in December, even if he claims that Rodgers has done a bit of point-proving of his own.

Ex-Swans chief Rodgers was under fire when Swansea travelled north just after Christmas, yet now are back in the top-four pack, having won seven of their last league nine as part of an unbeaten run of 12.

“From my experience, Brendan is a good manager, so I thought he’d be alright,” said Wales skipper Williams. “That’s football: one minute you’re a hero, the next you’re a zero.

“But we know Brendan, we know he’s a top manager and they have good players, so we know it’s going to be a difficult game for us.

“They’re doing well. They beat Manchester City on the weekend so will be full of confidence and we know we had a tough one up there. It’s never nice to lose and not perform and we felt we didn’t perform that night.

“But we don’t feel we have a point to prove. We definitely want to perform better than we did there and, with it being on TV again, we want to give a better account of ourselves.

“We do tend to play well against them at home, but there’s nothing personal, there are no points to prove.

“All we know is that it will be a massive game for us; we know exactly what it means and we’ll be focused for it.”