NOBODY in the EPL is playing to make a fortune – we’re mostly all playing because we love the game of hockey.

It is nice to get a little bit of money but the import players are the ones that don’t have to work and some of the top British players have coaching jobs at the clubs that they’re at so that they can work things that way.

But most of us have normal jobs in the week. Lee (Richardson) is a carpenter, Floydy (Floyd Taylor) is a plumber and I work in a warehouse.

I’m lucky because I work for the company run by Daryl Lipsey and Bryan Larkin, who both played for the Wildcats, so they’re accommodating to me and understand what it’s like to play hockey.

There will be some times where a player may have to turn up late for a game – maybe if they’re coming from Cardiff and can’t get away from work – but the coaches are flexible with that kind of thing.

It is busy. You play on a Saturday and a Sunday and then you can be up early for work on a Monday morning after a long trip the night before.

That’s tough sometimes and it’s not something that I’d say you necessarily get used to but when you’re a young player, you just want to go to the gym all the time, but you learn how important it is to rest.

You usually rest on a Monday and then try to go to the gym on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Then, we’ve got training on Thursdays and Fridays.

Some teams aren’t getting on the ice until 11.30pm some nights because of other activities at rinks like skating but we’re quite lucky with that and we usually meet at 9.15pm on a Thursday and 8.30pm on a Friday.

Apart from the odd Saturday or Sunday, there isn’t really much time off for us between September and April but that’s the way it is and we do have the summer to relax.

Slowly, the league seems to be becoming more professional and I was talking to Lee about this the other day - maybe one day, every player will be fully professional, rather than semi-pro like it is at the moment.