Elijah Adebayo growing up with Walsall

The 22-year-old has had a handful of loan spells in his short career, but made his first permanent move after leaving Fulham in the summer, joining the Saddlers.

With six goals this season, he struggled at the beginning of the campaign but has started to find some form and Adebayo believes he needed to move away from home to mature as a player.

"This is my first home after Fulham and I've learnt a lot about myself in the eight months I've been here," he said.

"I feel like I'm only getting stronger and I'm looking forward to progressing my career even more.

"You have to grow up when you move away from where you're comfortable.

"This is part of the sacrifice you make to ensure that you have a great career, you always have to be adaptable to change.

"If you want to have the best possible career and give yourself the best possible chance, you have to make sacrifices for what we call the game we love."

With an average age of 24.5 in the Saddlers squad, Adebayo insists the younger players need to 'learn quickly' – adding that the more experienced professionals have helped them throughout the season.

"We're learning together and we have to learn quickly," he added.

"We are quite a young group with a few experienced heads in there as well to help the younger lads.

"We have great pros, great senior pros to go and ask anything and they'll give you the best advice.

"They've been through it, they've gone through the stages we're going through right now.

"They know how to deal with things the best way possible, the experienced lads are great to have around.

"That's the game we're in and the quicker you pick it up the better chance you have of having a successful career.

"It's good to have the experienced heads in there."