Monday 1 December 2014 23:53, UK
Mark Noble accepts that training on Christmas Day is part and parcel of being a professional footballer and the West Ham midfielder would not have it any other way.
Yet again, at this time of year, many managers - including Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal - are expressing their dismay at the hectic festive schedule but Noble accepts ‘it is a privilege’ to be a Premier League player.
The 27-year-old has made more than 200 league appearances for the Hammers and regarding the forthcoming series of fixtures later this month, Noble said: "It is hard if you have got family and kids and you have to leave them on Christmas Day to go and train but listen, we are a small minority of lucky players.
We have a good life and playing football over Christmas is not the worst thing in the world.
"We have obviously worked hard for this but we are lucky enough to have the ability to play in the Premier League, so you have to take the good with the bad and if you have to play over Christmas, then you have to.
"We have a good life and playing football over Christmas is not the worst thing in the world.
"You think about soldiers out in Afghanistan or Iraq, and they are not with their families and they are getting bullets fired at them whereas we are playing in the Premier League, so you have got to put it in perspective really."
However, he understands that clubs need large squads to cope with the fixture list, by adding: "The Christmas period is so demanding and you need a big squad for that because people do pick up injuries.
“We have four games in eight days and you need the squad to be able to deal with that. I think we have that this year."
And his manager Sam Allardyce believes Noble is happy with his current form by saying: "Now he is coming into the peak of his career and we are moving forward pretty well at the moment, so I think he's enjoying himself better than ever before.
"Mark has seen a lot of turmoil (at West Ham), a lot of change, with a lot of players coming in and out, lots of change of ownership and change of managers - but he has still always been there.”
