I’m not a political person, so there have been times when I’ve shut off from everything that’s going on. But at other times, I have to be involved. If not, then everything falls down.

Over the last few weeks I’ve done a lot of media stuff, talking about things that are away from football. Mentally, it has been draining. But I try to find a positive way to deal with it rather than letting it weigh on me, because there’s no positive end to that.

Every game is a chance for me to be back ‘home’ where I want to be: on the side of a football pitch, trying to help the boys win a game.

It’s where I’ve been for almost 20 years now, ever since I realised that playing the game professionally wasn’t meant to be for me. I spent time at Charlton and Wimbledon as a youngster and was tipped to do really well, but my body kept breaking down.

“I felt there needed to be something else for them, otherwise they were going to end up on the streets”

I played a lot of non-league football, including a season at Dulwich, where the timetable gave me more recovery time – but my body just wouldn’t allow me to do it full-time. The injuries just kept on coming.

The result was that I developed an early interest in coaching.

As a player, I was always a bit of a leader. I’m not a loud person, but when it came to football I’d always encourage other people. I’d recognise someone who didn’t have confidence in themselves or didn’t realise how good they could be, and try to get the best out of them.

And I’d help the managers. I’d be the one to tell players things that the manager wanted to say but couldn’t because they’d fall out with the team. A lot of the time, I didn’t even realise I was doing it. I was just being myself.

I found my first coaching opportunity almost literally on my doorstep.

Over the road from my local estate in Peckham, there was a local adventure playground that I used to go to with Rio Ferdinand and his brother Anton. There were loads of different sports there.

It was a place that kept a lot of people out of trouble.