Midfielder Ebou Adams has revealed his pride at leading out the Derby County squad after captaining the side recently and insisted the Rams are determined and fighting to turn around their fortunes in the Sky Bet Championship.
The 29-year-old has donned the armband for the Rams in their last two fixtures under new Head Coach John Eustace.
Derby will have a valuable opportunity to spark a fightback in the league with back-to-back home games in the Sky Bet Championship in the coming days. They host Blackburn Rovers on Saturday (3pm kick-off) and then Coventry City on Tuesday night (7:45pm kick-off).
Adams spoke to RamsTV to discuss observing Ramadan while playing football and take a look ahead to Saturday’s clash with Blackburn.
On observing Ramadan and fasting while playing for the Rams…
Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, so it’s an important thing. It arrived on the day of Middlesbrough, so that's when I started. Ramadan is a case of waking up, fasting from sunrise or sunset, and you do it for 20-30 days. It's not just about the eating and drinking for that period, it's using the time to reflect and to help learn about yourself and what you can improve on to hopefully be a better person through that month and just reflect.
For me, I appreciate it because it teaches a lot about myself every month. If I'm going away from certain things, it brings myself back to who I try to be and that's to be a better person. I enjoy it. The boys get excited because they see me playing during the month of Ramadan, which is a good inspiration. It's not easy to play football while fasting, but it's something that gives me that drive to succeed and the discipline to do it. If you're hitting a brick wall, you can still get through it. It's more like a life lesson, it's not just about football. It can teach you loads of life lessons, which is the main reason for it.
On believing and seeing a path to success…
Of course [we see things turning around]. What's the point of playing football if you don’t believe? The situation we're in is not nice, but you don't play football just for the sake of it - we are where we are, and if we can turn things around it’s a big thing for us. It's not over until it’s over. Until then, we just keep playing.
I'm not saying it's going to be us, but I think if you look at it now, the table will change. We don't know who for. I can't tell you what will happen, but we have to keep pushing until the end of the season. We won't stop in the situation we're in, but there's a lot of things that can happen in the Championship. I'm always saying we believe, we're not so far from changing things. As players, we've got to do that on the pitch and get back points as soon as possible.
On captaining the side in recent matches…
It's a massive honour. It caught me by surprise. I've been given the armband a few times before - but I didn't think I would be named to lead the team out - but the boys have been quite happy with it. It makes me proud to lead out the team, this family of brothers into a game. There's so much background, so much history to this club so it's an honour to wear the armband and lead the team out.
On the togetherness in the dressing room…
If there are [disagreements], you are brothers and you sort it out amongst yourselves. I say they are my brothers because I’d walk through a brick wall for them. I'd do anything for everyone in this group, on and off the pitch. This honestly has been one of the best changing rooms I've been in. I found that when I first joined.
On back-to-back home games being a chance to build form…
The fight doesn't start against Blackburn, it starts from training. We've got to have that mentality from Monday, as soon as you walk through the doors. It starts with that mentality. We have to make sure the standards are high and make sure the players are doing the right thing, eating the right thing, cooling down, doing stretches and doing what you need to do to make sure you're ready for the big day. As soon as you walk in and you have that mentality, you're ready - and then turn up on that day to give everything.