rlex Posted April 16, 2021 Posted April 16, 2021 Southampton winger Nathan Redmond is talking about his mother, Michelle, the biggest influence in his life. Had it not been for her overwhelming love and support, Redmond might not be walking out at Wembley in an FA Cup semi-final this weekend. Prior to making his debut for hometown club Birmingham City at the age of 16, and while he was still studying for his GCSEs, Redmond was training alongside Lee Bowyer, Barry Ferguson and Stephen Carr after being elevated to Alex McLeish's first-team squad. "There were times I didn't want to go back to training because I was getting kicked every day," he tells BBC Sport. "Sometimes I'd come home crying because all these tough players kicked lumps out of me. The support of my mum, and a few other players in that group, enabled me to get through it." Since surviving Birmingham's school of hard knocks, Redmond has gone on to score 27 goals and provide 20 assists in 229 Premier League appearances. He has scored in a Championship play-off final and played - albeit for only 20-odd minutes - for Gareth Southgate's England. Michelle, who worked six days a week and juggled two jobs as a single parent, has been there encouraging, coaxing and screaming from the moment he first kicked a football. "She put me in a position to live out my dreams," adds Redmond, who hopes to inspire Southampton to reach a first FA Cup final since 2003 when they face Leicester City on Sunday. 'Mum chased team coach on motorway' Michelle was at St Andrew's in August 2010 when her son made a 12-minute substitute appearance against Rochdale at the start of a League Cup run that would end with Blues lifting the trophy after beating Arsenal at Wembley. Watching him make his first-team debut aged 16 years and 173 days was reward for all the hours she had put in to provide for him and his younger brother, Niall. "She'd work all week and Sunday was her only day off," says Redmond, who was on Birmingham's books from the age of eight until 19 when he joined Norwich, then in the Premier League, in a £3.2m deal in 2013. "But Sunday was also match day when I was growing up. Mum used to work late on a Saturday and sometimes when it was time to leave for my game early the next morning I would find her asleep on the sofa still in her work clothes. "She'd still drop me off at home games, pop home for a shower, change and come back and watch.
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