A quiet man with a sharp focus on his tasks at hand, Sean Goss can sometimes go unnoticed in the world outside of football.
He’s not flashy on social media and is quite a private person. But he’s got self-confidence within him to know that there is more to him than perhaps meets the eye.
Now 27, he’s carried some big responsibility of representing football institutions like Manchester United, while also coping with the pressure of another in Rangers during a tough time off the park.
There’s also a job at hand as a charity ambassador on top of providing an experienced hand for those who need it. The most games he’s played for one club is Shrewsbury Town, raking in 54 appearances.
He’ll likely break that with the Steelmen this season but it perhaps lends itself to a tag of inexperience. That’s not what Goss has been told – or feels – anyway.
“I think it’s the opposite,” when Goss fielded a question on youthful perceptions.
“I am not too sure. Anytime I speak to people they think I am a lot older.
“At 27, I think that is old! I think the main thing has been consistency and getting games. I haven’t had the best of luck with injuries but the last two years or so have been really good for me to get that run of games.
“I have been able to build consistency in my performances. I am a bit older now and I have been about some big changing rooms so hopefully that helps the younger ones in our changing room just now.
“Being able to train every day with world-class players, you obviously learn so much from those days. Any way I can help the younger lads here I will do my best to do.
“If you are a bit quiet on social media, people only really get to see you on a Saturday afternoon. The fans will always expect a lot from you and we will always give 100%. But like all the lads, everyone has so many different experiences and upbringings. I just want to work hard and do my best for the club.”
He’s well-versed in interviews like this now, too. His start to football in Exeter was a stark contrast to the situation he found himself in when moving to Man United, where suddenly he had the eyes of the world on him.
Of course playing in that famous red jersey is a pressure on its own but there are other things that perhaps aren’t noticed as much that can be just as daunting – like appearing on the club’s TV channel for the first time.
Now, this is no small audience. No little segment for the die-hards to watch. This is watched globally by a huge audience and at the time Goss had joined, they were still the team to beat in the Premier League. But such nervy experiences in front of the cameras prepared well for life in the spotlight.
“I joined United when I was 16 and I was at Exeter beforehand,” the midfielder reminisced. “I didn’t have things like media training beforehand but going to United, the difference is something I can’t even describe.
“It does help massively with those sorts of things, your first time going on MUTV and they are setting you up and your polo is drenched! It all worked alright in the end.
“The lucky thing about your first ones on MUTV is that they aren’t live! It takes about three hours to do a 10-minute interview!”
Perhaps Goss’ biggest challenge – or certainly one of them – in his career has been his battle with eosinophilic oesophagitis. This happens when white blood cells deposit in the lining of the oesophagus, which is the muscular tube that connects the mouth to the stomach. It can be the result of an allergic reaction to food or the environment.
“It was basically when I was diagnosed, it was a conversation I had with them just because of the exposure from football. They thought it could really help grow the awareness of it and I think it takes around an average of seven years to get diagnosed with it.
It was there during his days at Old Trafford and Ibrox, without him knowing what it was that was wrong. He relied on protein shakes as meal substitutes and slept for large periods not training or playing as his body was unable to fuel properly.
Given he is a professional athlete, it hampered the early stages of his career. Goss spoke about it earlier this year for the first time since moving to ML1 and has been enlightened by the response he’s got.
Following on from the likes of team-mate Bevis Mugabi working with good causes, he is now an ambassador for EOS Network,
a charity which tackles the illness he battles. It has to be done with passion, but supporting such causes is important for footballers in the public eye.
“When I got diagnosed, it took me about six or seven years,” explained the midfielder. “It was a really tough time for me as I knew something was wrong but I hadn’t found out what it was or put in the right direction for what it was.
“For anyone who is suffering with it and doesn’t know what it is, we want to be able to cut that time down as much as possible.
“I know how hard it is to live with. I wouldn’t want anyone else to be suffering with it. I think it is important, especially if it is something you feel passionate and strongly about.
“Bevis has done his thing and I think that is brilliant. It isn’t something everybody does and it’s not anything I would do either if I didn’t feel really strongly about it, to be honest.
“I am really keen to help out as much as I can as I do feel so strongly about this. I didn’t know what it was for so long and speaking with the charity, it’s crazy. When they were explaining things, it brought up memories of what I had as well.
“It was good for me as I got put in the right direction. It is good for me to know as much as I can so when people have asked me what the symptoms are, where do I go to help get sorted. When it is something like that, you want to know as much as you can anyway.”
With his second season in claret and amber well underway, Goss is taking all his experiences with him and putting it all into his settled life in Lanarkshire.
One experience he does want to have more of is that feeling of celebration when he hits the net. At the time of writing, Goss is yet to do that under new manager Steven Hammell and with a raft of injuries to forward players, he knows it might be time to add to the CV.
“It’s tough as you can never expect these sorts of things to happen so it’s been frustrating for us, frustrating for the manager as well,” he commented.
“It’s important now we all help to chip in with goals, me included, as it’s been too long since I did.
“Mine was at St Mirren at home last year. I am hoping that when I get one, they start coming again. It’s important we share the load just now as we can’t expect one player to score every single goal.
“You want the strikers to get as many as they can as that is why they’re up there. But we can take the pressure off them by chipping in with some of them.”
There’s a decision to be made on his future come May, but under the new manager Hammell, he now has a freedom to show his true self.
That’s not a commodity he’s always had in his career, and it is why he is keen to savour that now. Goss has been in the central belt with Rangers and slightly further north in Perth at St Johnstone. But it is in Motherwell where he feels comfortable, with a focus now on consistency.
“I am happy here,” the former Red Devil added.
“I have moved around quite a lot so I am happy and settled. It’s been good here. From the start of the season, I have really enjoyed playing in my more comfortable position.
“I feel I can help the team more there and now I just want to help pick up results to go with it. You can see with the way we have played in certain games, there is a lot of freedom for the boys.
“I think everybody enjoys playing under the manager. We just want to pick the results up for him.
“There’s been games we’ve dominated and not gotten what we deserved from it.
“We need to take our chances and then we can stop having the conversations of whether we could have done this or did we do that right.”
