Leicester’s Kelechi Iheanacho’s mother died when he was away training with Nigerian team as a teenager.

Times free of the pressures and demands of professional sport. Times when goals were not everything. Times when his mother, Mercy, was still alive.

‘I loved that part of my life so much,’ says Iheanacho. ‘I wish I can bring it back but it can’t come back again, it is gone. I loved playing football since I was a kid. I loved kicking the ball around, playing with my friends, with my brother.

Iheanacho isn’t complaining. He has worked too hard and come too far — first at Manchester City and now at Leicester. But the 24-year-old makes no apologies for his moment of wistfulness. It is OK to enjoy a new life while at the same time lamenting the passing of another.

Certainly the death of his mother is wrapped up in it all. Three of the nine goals he has scored on a recent productive run came on Mother’s Day against Sheffield United. Afterwards, on TV, he dedicated them to the memory of Mercy, who died when he was 16 and away from home on a Nigeria FA training camp.

‘I think about her every day,’ says Iheanacho. ‘There is not a day I don’t remember her. I know she is in a good place now. It helps me to keep working hard every day and to keep going.

‘My worst fear was to lose her. So the...........More(photos)

SOURCE: https://go.ovasports.com/kel