In December, a lovely thing happened during Burnley's home game with Bournemouth at Turf Moor. As the clock ticked into the eighth minute, Burnley fans began to applaud, in recognition of the first anniversary of the stillbirth of Harry Arter's daughter Renee (Arter wears number eight). After the game, Arter tweeted his thanks to the Burnley fans.
In fact, so touched by the gesture was Arter that - as quoted by Ben Fisher of The Guardian - he has the minute's silence recorded:
I have still got it on record on my telly, it is nice to look back on sometimes and I am honestly so thankful for that. It was a club I have never had anything to do with, to be honest – I never played for them or anything like that – I was so thankful for that.
Arter goes into Bournemouth's game away to West Brom this weekend for his first match since the birth of his baby daughter, Raine. Coincidentally it was also an away game to the Baggies that saw the Republic of Ireland midfielder return to football after Renee's tragic death. Arter admitted that football wasn't entirely his first priority at stages last season due to the turmoil in his personal life.
I went through a phase towards the end of the season, I was finding football very tough to be bothered about results. Of course, three points tomorrow (Saturday) is not life or death – but professionally it is. I had to kind of understand that and when I understood it I could put it right. It is my profession, I have to be professional, I had to understand that.
You can read the rest of the interview - where Arter explains why he calls Raine his "rainbow baby" and speaks about the bond he shares with his Bournemouth team-mates - on The Guardian website.
