FERNANDINHO is living proof you are never too old to learn new skills.
The Manchester City ace — who turned 34 back in May — is one of the ten oldest players to have featured in the Premier League this season.
Yet Pep Guardiola decided to convert him into a centre-back at the start of the season, even though he has been a defensive midfielder all his career.
The former Shakhtar Donetsk man has been outstanding in helping the champions through their defensive injury crisis.
In fact, the Brazilian has been so good he is likely to keep his place, even though the likes of John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi are fit again.
While Fernandinho’s body may be slowing down, he says his mind is still sharp and believes that is the key to his durability.
Fernandinho is available to face Southampton today after missing their midweek Carabao Cup tie through suspension following his red card against Aston Villa last Saturday.
He said: “To be honest, I just thank God for giving me a body that can do this.
“Every three days I have to be mentally ready and improve my body to be ready.
“Of course, I take care of myself but we have great staff taking care of us behind the scenes, which helps because first you have to get the mind ready and then the body and just go on.
“I always say I’ll play while my mind will allow me to play.
“When I feel happy and motivated to play every day, this is important.
“To train happy and fresh every day until I don’t feel like this, I will play — but I don’t want to say until 37, 38 . . . 40. We shall see.”
Boss Guardiola has been working on turning Fernandinho into a centre-back since the end of last season.
And the player — who joined City for £30million back in July 2013 — has relished the challenge.
He said: “Having the help from the team-mates and the manager, it’s been great for me, trying to do my best as always since I signed for City.
“We know we have to improve but this is the beautiful thing about football, you know you can improve and you can get better every time, every morning, so let’s make it happen.”
Any defender could be forgiven for expecting an easy day against a Saints side who were hammered a record-equalling 9-0 at home to Leicester in their last Premier League game eight days ago.
Ralph Hassenhuttl’s strugglers are picking up the pieces and only lost 3-1 at the Etihad on Tuesday.
But Fernandinho said: “It doesn’t matter if Southampton got a bad result last time, it’s really hard after a defeat like that.
“Regardless of that you have to win the game, we know exactly the way they’re going to play.
“Five at the back, maybe, or five in the middle. Trying to reduce the space for our players who play up front but we just have to do our best.
“We just have to play our game, play very good football, try to move the ball faster and try to find the spaces and create chances and, of course, take care of counters.
“They have fast players up front and they’re very dangerous.
“We have to be ready for the next challenge and nothing changes.
“We try to do our best and we’ll see what happens.”
At the other end, in-form striker Raheem Sterling will no doubt be relishing the prospect of facing a defence that capitulated so spectacularly last week.
The 24-year-old England ace has been in blistering form for both club and country this season and already has 17 goals.
Fernandinho has been impressed by the improvement shown by the former Liverpool man.
He said: “He is taking the chances we create as a team and that’s good because the way we play as a team, we create a lot of chances in the box.
“The players know we’re going to create chances and Raheem understands it really well.
“He’s improved a lot. The way he finishes, he scores goals.
“That’s good for him and I hope he can continue to grow up and improve more.
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“As human beings, sometimes we fail in some actions, sometimes we make some mistakes, that’s normal. especially when you are young.
“Raheem’s improved outside the pitch. He changed his style of life and it helps him a lot on the pitch.
“He’s taken more responsibility on the pitch.
“He’s a father, too. You start to see the world in a different way and start to see things changing. We are so happy for him.”