Late-night runs helped Jonjoe Kenny take his 1st team chance at Everton
It has been a very long road to playing first-team football at Everton for Jonjoe Kenny but he has finally earned his chance at Goodison Park.
The Toffees’ academy graduate endured loan spells at Wigan, Oxford, Schalke and Celtic before he finally broke through on Merseyside.
He started for the first time under Frank Lampard against Leeds last Saturday and put in a solid display which he will hope keeps him in the starting XI.
The 24-year-old has been speaking to The Athletic about his career so far and he revealed how he would go on runs in the middle of the night if he hadn’t played to keep himself sharp.
“Nobody outside the club sees training, but I think for a while I’ve been bringing myself to a new level,” Kenny said. “I’ve done a lot of extra physical and mental stuff outside of football to have that change. It’s been a five-month process. Being consistent.
“There were moments after games when I hadn’t played that I would get home really late and go running during the night. I want to always stay ready so there were no excuses when the opportunity came.
“I didn’t want to be saying I wasn’t used to playing or I was rusty. I needed to feel in my own head as if I’d played a game even when I’d been on the bench.”
Give him credit
At a time when Anthony Gordon is getting all the plaudits from Everton supporters, we mustn’t forget what Kenny has done for the club.
Like Gordon, he is a homegrown talent from Merseyside and plays like it on the pitch no matter who he is up against.
He will never be the best player on the pitch but you can guarantee that every time he pulls on a shirt with the Everton badge emblazoned on the front, he will give absolutely everything he has for the club.
He has willingly sacrificed his natural right-back position to do a job for Lampard on the left side when Vitaliy Mykolenko missed the Leeds game through illness and he may have done enough to keep his place despite the Ukranian’s return to training.
Let’s hope he carries on this purple patch and installs himself as an integral part of the Everton squad, even if he isn’t a guaranteed starter every week.
In other Everton news, there’s a big blow for one Toffees ace who has revealed the extent of his injury on social media.