Preston North End player column: Daniel Iversen on his PNE loan, hitting the gym at Leicester and his lockdown haircut

It is the team which is the most important thing and I would rather have a game where I don’t have anything to do and we put the goals in at the other end.

As a squad we have to keep our heads up and I’m sure our hard work will see the results get better. This is a good club to be at and I’m pleased to have made the move here in January.

Off the pitch, I’m settled in an apartment in Manchester, the club were really good in helping me find somewhere.

I had a week in a hotel when I first signed but when you move in football, I think it is important you get a place of your own.

That’s been important in the lockdown rather than just going back to a hotel room every night.

While the restrictions don’t allow you to do too much or go anywhere, at least in your own place you can keep busy – cook food or clean the apartment, things like that.

Playing football in England was always something I wanted to do.

I’ve been a keeper for as long as I can remember, playing for my home-town club in Denmark before moving to Esbjerg.

Leicester signed me from Esbjerg when I was 18, so I’ve been with them about five years.

About a year before I had a trial at Aston Villa and, when I was 16, spent a week with Fulham.

It was so different to what I was used to in Denmark, the tempo even in the 16s was more than I’d been used to.

When I signed for Leicester it was a big move for me and it was tough to start with.

I didn’t speak the language to start with but Kasper Schmeichel was there to translate. I started having lessons and now I’m pleased to say I speak English quite well.

What I noticed when I came to Leicester was how the other goalkeepers were miles better physically.

They were doing gym work four or five times a week, whereas in Denmark we did gym

work once a week if we were lucky.

It is things like that you have to adapt to but once I’d been there for a while, it was something I got used to.

Being able to go out on loan formed a big part of my development as a keeper.

I’ve played at Oldham, Rotherham, Leuven, and now Preston. I was at Leuven, a club in Belgium, for the first half of the season before I came here in January.

Since signing for Preston, my hairstyle has changed.

There’s a bit of a story about that. My mum is a hairdresser and before the restrictions she had cut my hair if I’ve been back home or she has come to visit me.

I needed it doing in Belgium but lockdown made that difficult.

When the Leuven loan was ended, I came back to England and had to quarantine.

The hairdressers were still open when I flew back but then they shut again when I was quarantining and still haven’t opened!

My hair was starting to get a bit long when I signed for Preston, so my missus got the clippers and gave me the short haircut I have now. She did a good job!

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