Training has finished at West Ham’s base in Rush Green, Romford and Kurt Zouma, with a smile befitting a man whose middle name is Happy, is walking towards the prayer room.
Nayef Aguerd and Said Benrahma, the club’s other two first-team players of Muslim faith, are with him. They are no longer in their filthy training gear. They have performed the purification ritual known as Wudu in preparation for their appointment with the Almighty.
They kneel towards the Qibla, the direction of Mecca, and begin to pray. Footballers may spend their lives in the public domain, but this is Zouma’s private moment between him and his maker.