The 25-year-old defender acknowledges that this perhaps makes him a little different to his peers, but thinks it might also help explain how he’s been able to maintain his high standards over the years.
“Yeah, I think it’s probably a little bit different to other people. My friends from home who don’t do it every day, if they were in my situation they would probably be buzzing the whole time! Their emotions would be up and down and maybe that’s why I am where I am.
“My emotions don’t get too high or too low and I can focus on what I need to do. I like to stay very level, and not let emotion get in the way of performance I guess.”
And what about his teammates? Does it affect the dynamic in the dressing room with those members of the squad who tend to live and breathe football to an almost obsessive degree?
“No, not at all,” he shrugs. “I think if everyone was the same it wouldn’t work. What makes a team is a combination and mixture of personalities. You need a balance, everyone is different and that brings the best out of everyone.”
Ben adds that he doesn’t envisage staying in football in any capacity once his playing days are over, and says that he would have been happy to follow in his father’s footsteps had football not taken off for him.
“Yeah, I’d probably be working with my dad if I wasn’t a footballer. He used to be a gardener. I think that’s why there was never any pressure on me growing up, because I would have been very happy with that. I went into football, but it would have been no problem for me to do what my dad did.”
And in that parallel universe, had Ben become a gardener instead, he insists he wouldn’t be settling down to watch football at the weekend.
“No, I never used to watch football much anyway,” he reveals. “If it was on when I was a kid, after five minutes I’d get bored of it and go outside to play football instead. I didn’t really watch it, I’d much rather do it. Even now, I don’t watch football really. I watch my own clips, and my own footage to help me improve, but I wouldn’t watch a game for fun.
“I’m obsessed with being the best I can be, and being successful, and that would have been in anything I did. I always want to do the most I can to be a success. So if I had gone into gardening, it would have been the same.
“My profession just happens to also be a lot of people’s hobby. They look forward to every Saturday to watch the game and that’s great, but for me it’s about being on the pitches every day, trying to constantly be the best you can be. That’s the bit I really love.”