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Jonjo Shelvey believes he has "grown up" during his time at Newcastle United - and no longer warrants a reputation as a "sulker".

The 27-year-old endured a frustrating and injury-affected 2018/19 campaign at St James' Park, starting just 10 Premier League games and even slipping to fifth-choice midfielder at one stage.

Even when he recovered from his recurring thigh problem, Shelvey struggled to prove to manager Rafa Benitez that he had the match fitness to return to the side.

Yet, rather than allow his frustrations to get the better of him, Shelvey worked hard in training and even volunteered to play for the Under-23s away at Fulham in March in a bid to prove his fitness.

Shelvey scored the winner during that match but still had to wait until the final three games of the season before he returned to the starting XI, and that was once United had already secured safety.

"I probably have a bit of a reputation about being a sulker and having a bad attitude, and, if I'm honest with you, then probably three or four years ago I probably would have sulked and thrown my toys out the pram," Shelvey told nufcTV about his decision to ask to play for the Under-23s in March.

"But I've grown up a bit and you realise that your job is to be a professional footballer and that you need to look after yourself.

"At the end of the day this club pays your wages, so you need to give your respect to the club.

"I wasn't getting any games at that time [in March], so I just thought: 'How can I get myself some gametime? How can I get myself back into the team? How can I get myself back into the picture?'

"The first team were playing West Ham away [in March] and it didn't look like I was going to be involved in the XI, and I didn't really want to go there and sit on the bench, I'd have rather have gone and got some minutes.

"I hadn't kicked a football in about three months and I wanted to go and get some minutes in my legs.

"So I travelled down on the Thursday night, stayed at my house, and then went and met the Under-23s at Fulham and played the match. We won 1-0 and I scored, so it was good for me."

Early in his Magpies career, Shelvey picked up rash red and yellow cards, including a dismissal for a dangerous off-the-ball challenge against Tottenham Hotspur at the start of the 2017/18 campaign.

(Image: PA)

However, in the two years which have followed, Shelvey has learned to control his emotions on the pitch, and picked up only one booking across the course of the 2018/19 campaign.

Interestingly, the England international insists he has not made a conscious decision to avoid collecting cards out on the field, but that his temperament has improved over time.

"It's not really [something I've worked on]. You read on social media and things like that, where they say, 'He's a hot head', and, 'He loses' his temper', and things like that," Shelvey reflected upon the statistic that he has only picked up a solitary yellow card, and hasn't been dismissed, over the course of the past calendar year.

"The only thing I lose my temper with is my kids probably, but it's not something I go out and think: 'I'm going to try not to get booked.' If you get booked, you get booked, but I know that I've not been talking back to referees and things like that.

"People can say what they want - 'He's got an attitude problem', or, 'He's a liability', or, 'He picks up bookings' - but then they don't actually look at the stats to see that it's sort of changed now. I just let people talk."

Shelvey faces an uncertain Newcastle future, with West Ham United repeatedly linked with the 27-year-old.

Yet the midfielder - who has already started his own individual conditioning programme more than a month ahead of the official start of pre-season training - insists his sole focus is on Newcastle for now, where he continues to mature as a player.

He said: "I feel like I've become more mature on the pitch. I feel like I've started to understand the term 'football' a lot more, and the way you should look after your body.

"If you're not playing, you should be supportive of other people, and that's the way you've got to be in football.

"Don't get me wrong, you've got to be selfish and look after yourself, but then there's times where you've got to step back and just say: 'Congratulations.'

"Definitely in the last two or three years I feel like I've grown up on the pitch."