Burnley’s Zian Flemming explains fascinating reason behind his trademark Nate Diaz celebration

For the first time, Flemming has opened up on the emotional back story to the muscle-man pose he strikes every time he hits the back of the net.

Burnley fans got to witness it for the 11th time last weekend when the forward scoring the winning goal against Bristol City via a sublime 30-yard free-kick.

Explaining the history to his celebration, Flemming told Clarets+: "It’s been around for ages.

"It started when I was 16 or 17 in the academy of Ajax, where I had a very late growth spurt which caused me a lot of issues in me knees and my heels which basically kept me out of the game for two years.

"I kept falling back into the injury, because only time could heal it really.

"Obviously at that age, it’s quite a significant amount of time to be out. It’s when you can get your first contract and things like that.

"After those two years, I came back and needed one full year to get to know my new body, because I grew like 20cms or something.

"When I came back and I was fit, I just had to re-find myself, my coordination and all of that stuff, which took me a full season.

"I swent into the Under-19s, which was the highest youth team at the time, and at that time my body and me was ready to go back into the team. But I had just missed a couple of years, so the cards were already shuffled a little bit in favour of the other guys.

"From that position I had to start right at the bottom of the tree again and try and fight myself back up.

"From there onwards, I just didn’t want to give up. At that time, there was the rivalry between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz. I don’t know if people remember it, but Diaz took the first fight on a few weeks’ notice at a time when Conor was world champion and the best in the world.

"I remember seeing Diaz getting battered by McGregor, his face was bleeding and everything but he just kept standing up and kept standing his ground. He managed to turn the fight around and won by submission.

"I used that as a reference for other setbacks I’ve had and was still experiencing. Life can keep hitting you if you’re in a difficult situation, but I refused to give up and I used that as inspiration.

"During that season in the Under-19s, I scored a goal and celebrated like that. I did it once, the photo was there, and I did it again and it began to get more attention.

"I finished that season as a starter again and scored probably 15 to 20 goals or something, scoring in the Championship game against Feyenoord and in the cup final too.

"During that year, I was one of the only ones that didn’t have a contract yet, but then at the end of the year I got rewarded with a professional contract at Ajax. That’s basically the story.

"The celebration came at a time where I had to start all over again to make my comeback. Since then, it’s just stuck.”