A tombstone is tattooed on Troy Deeney’s right arm. The stone bears the name of his father, Paul Anthony Burke. It records the dates of his birth and death. Lower down the arm are images that depict Paul Anthony Burke’s battles with light and darkness.

Higher up, guarded by an angel, is an imagining of the gates of heaven where Deeney believes his father is now at peace. And where the arm meets the shoulder, the eyes of Paul Anthony Burke stare out. It is a tribute still in progress to a man he loved. In time, the eyes will become a face.

Paul Anthony Burke was in and out of prison during much of Deeney’s childhood. Deeney does not go into detail about his crimes. He does not see them as something to boast about. And anyway, his father disguised his absences as business trips and holidays when Deeney was young.

Troy Deeney has opened up exclusively to Sportsmail and spoken about how he has turned his life around

Deeney's father Paul Anthony Burke spent much of the now-Watford striker's childhood in and out of prison

He does recall one time his father was away longer than usual. ‘The main one,’ he calls that absence. But until Deeney, 27, came to compose his dad’s funeral eulogy and sought out the details of his life, he did not realise how much trouble he had been in. ‘He protected us from that,’ says Deeney. ‘I always felt he was there for me.’

His father died of cancer of the oesophagus in the summer of 2012, a short time before Deeney was sent to jail for his part in a Birmingham city centre brawl. He raised Deeney as his own although he was not his biological father. ‘My biological father abandoned us before I was born,’ says Deeney. ‘The way I think about it, he was just a sperm donor.’

There was a certain formality about Deeney’s father. Paul Anthony Burke thought it was right, when first introduced, that he should be addressed by his full name. He was meticulous about extending the same courtesy to others. Deeney will not address someone by their Christian name until he has met them several times. His name was important to his father in other ways, too.

‘He taught me that your last name is your first name,’ says Deeney. ‘Your family name is your most important name. So how people see your family name is how people see you before they even meet you. He wanted people to know who he was. My dad did not have fancy cars or gold chains but he made sure his name created respect.’

There was one more thing. Paul Anthony Burke would not allow Deeney and his brothers and sister to take his surname. He knew his name was a byword for trouble in Chelmsley Wood, the suburb of Birmingham where they lived. He insisted they take their mother’s name, Deeney. ‘Because of all the stuff he got into, he never wanted us to grow up with the burden of his surname,’ says Deeney.

Deeney, now a club captain in the Premier League, feels he learned how to respect others from his father

Deeney was sent to jail for his part in a Birmingham city centre brawl following his father's unfortunate death

His father, who raised Deeney as his own, sadly died of cancer of the oesophagus in the summer of 2012

‘Maybe it will seem strange to some people when I say I admired his morals. But he taught me about responsibility. Never blame anybody else. If you make a mistake, it’s your mistake. Don’t do something just because someone tells you to do it and then complain if it goes wrong. He demanded good manners and that we stand on our own two feet.

‘Maybe he could have lived more of what we think of as a normal life but that did not appeal to him. Does that mean you are a bad person or just that you made some bad life choices? I believe very strongly that it means the second of those things.’

On Deeney’s left arm is another tattoo. It is arranged as a verse three lines deep. ‘I have fought a good fight,’ it reads. ‘I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.’ It was chosen to explain that when he was faced with the thought of following the same path as his father, he turned away from it.

He turned away from it properly, too. He is frank about the person he once was and relieved that he was given the chance to become who he is now — a husband to his long-time partner, a father to two children, a forward about to fulfill his dream of playing in the Premier League, a feared finisher who has scored 65 league goals in the last three seasons, the captain and driving force of newly-promoted Watford, a better man.

He does not consider that he had a bad childhood. The opposite actually, although his idea of normality will not be familiar to many. To him, it was normal to hear debt collectors knocking on the door of the family flat at the foot of the 19-storey tower block in Chelmsley Wood.

This tattoo is a verse intended to show that he has chosen a different path to that of his beloved dad

Sportsmail's Oliver Holt speaks exclusively to Deeney, who does not hold back on discussing his turnaround

It was normal for his dad to be ‘away’ for six or seven months of the year. It was normal for his mum to work three jobs to give her kids the best childhood they could have.

In the space of a few days in February 2012, two events happened that shaped Deeney’s life.

One Sunday night, his father phoned and asked if Deeney, then 23, would go with him to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham the next day where he had an appointment with a consultant.

Deeney had then begun to forge a career as footballer. He worked as a bricklayer for a time but Walsall gave him a chance and he scored goals for them. In the summer of 2010, Watford paid £500,000 for him. He started to live life large in Birmingham. A generous man, he soon attracted a coterie of hangers-on who knew he would foot the bill for nights out. He also had a child but he was feckless and footloose and Stacey, the mother of his son, thought about leaving him.

At that time, Paul Anthony Burke had been trying to ignore the pain in his chest and throat for six months. ‘He was old school,’ says Deeney. ‘He didn’t like hospitals, didn’t like pills, didn’t like doctors. It was only when he started getting short of breath while he was walking that he decided he had to do something about it.’

The hospital consultant told them the cancer was advanced. ‘They told him he had to come back on the Friday to get the ball rolling with his treatment,’ says Deeney. ‘His partner and my partner started crying so he asked them to leave because he didn’t like seeing people cry.

‘Then he and I faced it up. I have been through that situation before so I knew the questions to ask. The guy just said it would take a miracle. He was pretty far gone. Going out and seeing the strongest man I know crying wasn’t ideal.’

The next evening, Deeney went out in Birmingham. He and his hangers-on and his brother hit the strip of bars and clubs on Broad Street. Deeney got drunk. At the end of the night, out on the street, someone shouted that his brother was being attacked in a fight.

Deeney turned and saw a melee. ‘In a split second, I forgot who I was and what I was,’ he says. ‘I just went back in and steam-rollered anything and anyone who was in the way. I could just see a commotion and I thought, “Right, until I find my brother, someone’s in the way”. The only people I didn’t hit were people I knew. Everyone else was a target.’

CCTV footage showed something else, too. It showed Deeney kicking a student in the head as he lay on the ground. ‘That is my biggest regret,’ says Deeney. ‘I hit the guy and he went down and as I have turned round to start fighting again, I felt like a tug on my leg.

‘If you know, in fighting, if someone’s grabbing at you, there’s a chance he’s got a weapon. You don’t know what he’s got. I just put him out. That’s the only part I don’t like talking about. That could have gone so far left. The guy could have died because I am a powerful guy. I didn’t think about my actions. When the police showed me the video the next day, I couldn’t watch.’

Deeney is frank about the person he once was and opens up about the person he feels he is now

Deeney was affected by seeing the strongest man in his life cry following the news of his father's cancer

Life is getting better for Deeney as he is preparing to captain Watford and lead them in the Premier League

Three months after that, his father lost his battle with cancer. He was 47. Deeney read that funeral eulogy. Three days later, he was sentenced to 10 months in jail for affray. Stacey wept in the public gallery at Birmingham Crown Court. From the dock, Deeney pleaded with her to stop.

He served three months of his sentence, first at Winson Green in Birmingham and then at Thorn Cross open prison, near Warrington. He was released early because he had shown his remorse in court and in prison and because it had been his first offence. He emerged from his brief incarceration a changed man.

Stacey had told him before the court case that if he escaped jail, she was going to leave him. ‘She said if I went to jail, she’d stick by me because I was going to need somebody that wasn’t after me for my money,’ says Deeney. She stayed. His so-called friends did not. Of the many who had accepted his lavish patronage, only a few visited him in jail. When Stacey could not pay the bills, his Watford team-mate, Adrian Mariappa, sent money to keep them afloat.

Deeney was mortified when some of his friends threw a welcome home party for him on his release. ‘I didn’t want anyone at my house when I got home,’ he says. ‘I just wanted it to be me, my missus and my son. I was a bit embarrassed to be honest. I was ashamed. I was coming home from jail. I wasn’t coming home from winning the league. It wasn’t time for a celebration.’

Deeney emerged from his brief incarceration a changed man and has used his second chance for good

Deeney was left embarrassed when he was thrown a welcome home party following his release from prison

But Deeney has never looked back. He played for Watford 10 days after his release. He was fitted with an ankle tag, which he had to wear during games. It had to be wrapped in padding and approved by the referee before every match. It stuck out like a deformity, a symbol of his shame. ‘I was so single-minded by then I didn’t even notice the tag,’ he says.

Deeney has since been Watford’s stand-out player, the man whose goals propelled them to promotion to the Premier League at the end of last season. He is bullish about his prospects. ‘I’m not worried about making the step up,’ he says. ‘If anything, I’m borderline over-confident.

‘There are not many forwards who are physical like me. Diego Costa is physical. Christian Benteke is sometimes physical. There are not many big strikers like me who don’t mind roughing up defenders. I might be a surprise for a few. I might be a pain in the **** for a few. It takes them out of their rhythm.

‘Playing in the Premier League, it was never meant to happen in my mind. It was a million miles away. Playing for Chelmsley Town was the main thing because all the cool kids played there. I thought Walsall would get rid of me. Every time I have thought, “This is my limit”, I have exceeded it. Now, I’ve got to the stage where I think I have got no limits. No excuses now.

Deeney played for Watford just 10 days after his release, fitted with an ankle tag, and has never looked back

Deeney is blunt about how there are 'not many big strikers like me who don’t mind roughing up defenders'

‘Going to prison was the best thing that ever happened to me. The two years leading up to that, I was thinking I was a man because I was going out drinking and paying for everyone.

‘I am more happy now, just being content in life. I used to wake up worrying about paying my mum £50 rent. That’s pressure. Mum saying that debt collectors are coming: that’s pressure.

‘Captaining Watford against Everton on the first day of the Premier League season, that’s not pressure. That’s enjoyment. That’s a reason to smile.’

Deeney is living up to what Paul Anthony Burke asked of him. He took responsibility for what he did that night in February 2012, he sought no one else to blame, he stood up and rebuilt his life and his career. He has become a polite, articulate, honest man, uninterested in trying to gloss over what happened.

Was there ever a danger that he would follow the same path as his father? He thinks for a minute. ‘I would never have gone all the way because I know what that brings,’ he says. ‘Going down that road, there are not many that come out happy.’