Nutrition and health are two of the key components to footballer’s development, and through his parents Connor Kurran-Browne has both in the genes.
As the under-21s forward prepares for Wednesday’s Premier League Cup match with Arsenal at Vitality Stadium, he’ll be ensuring his body is fully fuelled to be ready for the challenge.
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Housemate Christian Saydee may also be tasting the benefits, with Kurran-Browne’s dad Matt a professional chef and often helping out with recipes and advice.
“I’m a better cook than the average person in the team, but I don’t want to big myself up too much,” he told afcb.co.uk. “I can make a nice lasagne and enjoy cooking any pasta dish, obviously that’s easy but I like eating pasta a lot.
“Chris loves it I think, he’s not complaining when I cook him something!”
Mum Nicki is also well positioned to help out, a consultant in the development of health spas, and able to give her son massages during his youth career at first Watford and now AFC Bournemouth.
Kurran-Browne continued: “My dad would help out by cooking me nice food, my mum helping me with her knowledge. I owe a lot to them and hopefully I can repay them.
“They’ve helped me massively, but it’s not just that. There were times they’d be taking me to training, doing the mileage and getting up early because I used to wake up at 5am to go to school on the other side of London.
“At the same time they’d stick with me mentally, telling me I’ve got to keep going, that I signed up for it.”
CONSISTENCY THE KEY
The 19-year-old spent nine years with the Hornets before moving to the south coast, though has had serious injuries to first his quad and then his meniscus, making for frustrating months on the sidelines when due to be battling to make a name for himself with the Cherries.
Now fit and looking to fire, the forward was invited to Marbella in the summer for the first team’s training camp and has already proven to be a key performer with the under-21s this term.
He spoke about the areas he aims to improve at: “From as early as I can remember in football one of the main things I needed to improve was consistency. That’s not just game after game, but even within one game or one attack.
“I try not to look at other people and compare setbacks. It hasn’t been easy but everyone has their things, in life and in football, that have gone against them.
“If you look at it and think you don’t want to carry on then you’re never going to get anywhere. You have to take it on the chin, readjust and ask yourself what you can do to benefit the best from the position rather than dwell on it.
“That’s why all this season if things haven’t gone my way and there’s that excuse of me not having played football in a long time, I try to get on with it, thinking forward instead of thinking back.”
GAINING PERSPECTIVE IN THE COMMUNITY
Born in Hemel Hempstead and growing up near Luton, Kurran-Browne has been quick to embrace his new community in Dorset and won the club’s Scholar of the Year award in his final campaign with the under-18s for his community work as well as his commitment to his education.
The teenager talked about his motivation for his regular work with the Community Sports Trust.
“When there’s the opportunity to do something you learn a lot from it as a person, seeing how other people are in a community which is very different to where I grew up,” he said.
“On top of that it’s very enjoyable to see younger children playing football or in the disability camps that are put on, seeing life from another person’s perspective.
“The first time I did that I really enjoyed it, so since then I’ve offered to go back more times. It’s good that the club provide these sessions.”
GUNNERS IN THE CROSSHAIRS
With attentions now turning to Arsenal, Kurran-Browne and his team-mates have to focus on a very different sort of fixture to their last one, a 7-0 away win against Cowes Sports in the Hampshire Senior Cup.
“Actually, it’s kind of the same,” he explained. “When you look at it on paper you think it’s going to be a different challenge but there were still a lot of things that we had to deal with in that Cowes game.
“They played with physicality, they weren’t going to play the ball on the floor and we had to deal with a lot of balls in the air.
“With Arsenal it will probably be the opposite but you still have to deal with their strengths before you can get a result.
“Especially as we don’t have as many fixtures, in training we’re all just giving 100% so when a game does come, whether it’s West Brom, Cowes or Arsenal we’re still at that same level and putting in the same performance.
“Growing up, I was always playing against them for Watford and it was always a big game because it was Arsenal, they’re that team and they produce a lot of good players.
“As you get older it’s less of a big event and you’ve just got to take it as another game. Everyone in our team has their strengths and what they’re setting out to do, so it’s about bringing that out on the day.”
