Tonight’s trip to Hartlepool United will allow Michael Nelson to see his family after living away from his wife and two children during the week, but the Barnet defender admits that can sometimes be a blessing.
Nelson, 35, is now with his seventh club since leaving the Pools in 2009 following a successful six-year spell in which he won promotion as a League Two runner-up in 2007.
He has twice played north of the border, with Kilmarnock and Hibernian, but after spending last season at Cambridge United and joining the Bees this summer, he has gradually moved further away from his family base in the north east.
After the game at Carlisle United in September, Nelson was able to return to his family home for the weekend before reporting for training.
And he will be hoping to do the same again this evening following tonight’s League Two meeting at Victoria Park.
He said: “The gaffer has been great with me. He gives me time off to get back and see the family.
“It’s not easy being away but these are the two big loves of my life: family and football. If I’m going to miss the family this is probably the only thing I will miss them for.
“They’ve been great. Since I left Hartlepool I’ve never really lived at home. I’ve been here, there and everywhere, so they’ve been very supportive.”
Speaking prior to the start of the season, the former Norwich City defender admitted living away from home had its perks too, though.
He said: “I have got two boys and the wife back home and they are settled in school.
“It is too much to unsettle them and expect them to come down so most of the places where I have been that is the way we have managed it and it has been pretty successful in how it has worked.
“It can be tough,” he added. “There can be benefits to it as well.
"Sometimes on a Friday night if you have got a game on a Saturday and you are living at home with the family and one of the kids could be up through the night not very well and you don’t get a very good night’s sleep.
“Kids naturally get up early on a Saturday morning, nine times out of ten I am left to my own devices on a Friday night. So if anything I get more rest and time to look after myself away from my family than with the family.
“It is obviously hard when you are away and you miss them but I am quite used to it now.”
As well as giving the Gateshead-born stopper the chance to see his family, the visit to Hartlepool will be a reunion with the club he has spent the longest period of his career with.
Signed in 2003 from Bury, Nelson made more than 300 appearances for Pools before being signed by Norwich to aid their promotion back to the Championship.
“It was the closest club I’ve played for to where I live and it was a massive part of my career,” explained Nelson.
“I met some life-long friends there who I still speak to, both in the game and behind the scenes – people in the offices and stuff like that.
“It’s a massive part of my career but as I do wherever I go, [I throw myself into my current club].
“I play for Barnet now and if we have to turn them over to get Barnet three points that won’t bother me one little bit.”
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