Fires and dead bodies – Ex-Sheffield United man Kyle Walker reveals harrowing hometown experiences that shaped him in steel city
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Walker has retuned to training ahead of England’s clash with the USA, after undergoing groin surgery last month, and will hope to play his first minutes of the tournament after missing the 6-2 victory over Iran earlier this week.
But overcoming adversity is nothing new and ahead of the USA game, the 32-year-old opened up on some of the experiences and memories that have helped shape him from his early days growing up on the Lansdowne estate in Sharrow, not far from Bramall Lane.
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Hide Ad“That’s just been my life,” Walker said. “Your path is written out for you and what will be will be. I think it has moulded me into who I am as a person and I think your path is written out for you to experience certain things in life.
“I’ve had to go through and certain setbacks, certain doubts and highs as well which I have achieved at Manchester City. Maybe it is my upbringing/ Where I grew up, you had to survive. I’m 32 now. I wasn’t an adult. I wasn’t aware of what was actually happening. If I look back on it now, I think: ‘That was actually quite bad.’
“There was a fire on the estate which was bad. Or someone hung on the stairs when I was going up on my landing. Them two were probably the ones that stick in my mind.
“I was 12 or 13. The police blacked it all off on the landing, it was right next to my house. Someone put petrol through the door at a neighbour’s house, chucked a match in and that was it.
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Hide Ad“The kids got out, the caretakers caught them on some blankets and the mum threw them out but she couldn’t get out. I don’t tend to think about it now. I wouldn’t say it’s part and parcel of growing up, because no one should experience that. But it gives me that motivation to actually go and prove people wrong.”
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