“I HAVE had more pre-seasons than they have had birthdays,” said Michael Duff, referring to some of his team-mates. “Like Brad Jackson.”

The Clarets’ youth-team product does not turn 19 until October, leading Duff to declare: “I have been driving for 20 years."

His wry smile is mixed with a dash of exasperation in the tone of his voice as he contemplates the tail-end of his 21st pre-season, which is wrapped up with his testimonial today.

There is no getting away from the fact that the defender is getting on a bit. He was the second-oldest outfield player in the Premier League last season, behind Sylvain Distin.

He is marginally older than previous Burnley boss Eddie Howe. But he remains young at heart, especially when it comes to football.

“It is all I have done,” he said. “It is all I ever wanted to do. When I was two years old I always had a ball with me, apparently.”

It is perhaps arriving to the professional game later than he had hoped that keeps him hungry for more, not to mention the threat of having it all taken away by injury when he was just 29.

“I was coming across the face of goal to help the ball out for a corner. As I did that someone came across the top of my knee but I had planted, so there was nowhere for it to go,” said Duff, recalling the incident against Crystal Palace at Turf Moor in September 2007. “It was instant pain.”

Duff had damaged his hamstring tendon and both the lateral and cruciate ligaments in his right knee.

“I was told I would not play again by the surgeon,” he said.

“There was initial panic thinking ‘What am I going to do?’.

“But I do not think I ever thought I would not play again.

“You have the initial whirlwind and once that settles down that is when you start goal-setting.

“First it is getting off the crutches, then jogging, then 90-degree turns, twisting and turning and then ball work. They are markers that you tick off.

“I suppose there is always the underlying thought about whether you are going to get back to what you were, because the first thing that anyone says when you do a cruciate is ‘He will not be the same player when he comes back’.

“But it is too easy for people to throw away comments like that.

“There have been players who have not come back the same but I think I am a better player since I did it than what I was before.

“But no-one tells you about that, they just tell you about the player who came back worse.”

He had the daunting task of trying to win over a new manager in Owen Coyle, who had replaced Steve Cotterill — the boss who had bought Duff for £30,000 — less than two months into his lay-off.

Ultimately, though, the injury was a blessing in disguise. But he had already grown used to proving himself.

Duff was picked up by Nottingham Forest’s school of excellence at the age of seven, but left at 14 after being told he was not big enough. By his own admission he was “tiny”.

From school of excellence, it was the school of hard knocks amid a nomadic childhood brought about by dad John’s career in the Armed Forces.

Having settled in Oxfordshire, via his Belfast birthplace — which qualified him for international recognition with Northern Ireland — Gibraltar, Germany and the North East, he was rejected by Swindon Town.

He earned £10 a week playing with non-league Carterton Town, before finding his feet with Cotterill at Cheltenham Town after a knock-back by the previous manager.

“It has always been a natural instinct to defend,” said Duff, who started at right-back with Burnley before moving into his favoured central defence.

“I would rather get hit by a ball than score goals. I would rather block a shot on the line.

“That is just the weird mentality of a defender — you enjoy getting hit by balls — and Steve saw a drive and determination in me to get somewhere.”

That drive is what got him through his nightmare injury and the various setbacks since, like having to fight for his place under his five different Turf Moor managers, and get over the sense of intimidation he felt on arrival helped by experienced players like Frank Sinclair and John McGreal, who took him under his wing.

It is what keeps him going now, 11 years and two Premier League seasons after joining the Clarets under Cotterill.

He said: “I always have to be working towards something. It does not matter what it is. Before I became a professional it was just to play a Football League game. After my injury it was just to play another game of football. The injury is what started my coaching.

“Now, looking back, it is the best thing that happened to me because I have got all my badges in place and I am still playing, which is the perfect scenario. The goal now is to play in the Premier League, and I believe we can do it again.”