Billy Gilmour says his stature means he has had to focus even more to become a professional footballer.
The young midfielder has broken into Chelsea's first-team this season with a string of fine displays that have seen him tipped to be a key player for the Blues for years to come.
At just 5ft 7ins tall, Gilmour is unlikely to win many aerial battles that come his way but he has impressed many with his technical ability on the ball.
Speaking to the Mirror, Gilmour explained how consistently facing older players as a young teenager has meant he is used to playing against a physically imposing opposition.
“I’m not going to grow much more and being small, and not the biggest, it means I have to be technically really good, especially knowing where I am on the pitch and not getting into physical battles,” said Gilmour.
“If there’s a tackle there to be won, I will give it my all and I’ve never pulled out of a challenge.
“That goes back to when I was young, I was 12 or 13 playing with 18-year-olds and that’s how it’s always been growing up when size didn’t matter and you played because you loved it.
“I still see it that way and if you’re good technically and you’re on the ball, then they have to get it off you and you have to learn from that. If you do get knocked off the ball then you have to learn from it.
“You probably do have to work that much harder to make it, do more cone work, work hard in the gym and, at the same time, more focus on technical ability. You can also be the biggest guy in the world and be terrible technically so you have to balance that out.”
The midfielder also spoke about his first taste of training with the Blues' senior set-up following a 2017 move from Rangers.
Having grown up watching the great Barcelona team of the late 2000s, Gilmour admitted it was an eye-opening experience to go toe-to-toe with one of them in training.
“Cesc Fabregas was still there when I did two or three sessions with the first team and that was amazing because all the time growing up I had watched him, Andres Iniesta and Xavi.
“The first time I was a bit star struck, thinking: ‘this is Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard.’ It was a bit surreal. It was amazing to even train with those sort of players, top professionals.
“You just sort of go over, say good morning, shake their hand and then after the session, I’d phone my dad… ‘I was training with Cesc Fabregas and Hazard!’ It was like being a kid again!”
