West Brom defender Gareth McAuley reveals secret to longevity

The answer might be far simpler than you might think.

"It's Deep Heat!" replies the veteran defender, when the very question does arise during Albion's Christmas visit to Sandwell Hospital.

At this point, it should to be pointed out McAuley isn't being entirely serious, as can be quickly guessed by the big laugh and broad smile which breaks across his face.

"Ok, that was a bit of a joke," he says. "But I do use it and I have noticed a few of the lads now rubbing it into their legs before the game – so maybe it is catching on!"

Such revelations come as little surprise. After all, there can be few players who wouldn't want to follow the example of McAuley.

It has often been said and is also true that Albion's dressing room contains numerous good characters. Yet there is perhaps none quite like the Northern Irishman, who is as jovial and relaxed when chatting to reporters in a hospital kitchen as he is focused and dependable every weekend on the pitch.

And though you suspect the questions about his longevity may grow tiresome, they remain nonetheless valid for a player who continues to play at a consistently high level at an age when most professionals have begun to decline.

Hearing him say he is already confident of playing next season comes as no less a surprise than the knowledge Albion and head coach Tony Pulis will be eager to have him on board.

McAuley is a player for whom the rewards have come late and whose balanced view of the world comes, at least in part, from having played part-time football until the age of 24 and gotten a taste of the real world while working as a draughtsman in his native County Antrim.

Now in his sixth season in the top flight, he still gives off the sense of a man living the dream, one which he is in no mood to see end anytime soon.

"I love running about and I love playing football – I know what it is like not doing that," he said. "I want to do it for as long as I can. As long as I can do it at a level everyone is happy with I will keep doing it. There is no better thing I can think of."

McAuley is not someone who looks too far into the future. His current contract, signed back in April, was for just one season. A similar deal is likely to be agreed sometime in the new year.

"I feel good at the minute," he says. "Playing the three games in six days last week – when I saw it coming up I thought, 'oh, can I do that?'

"I have managed to come through it alright. My stats didn't drop off during the games.

"You never know what is round the corner in this game. I have never been one for planning too far ahead. I will enjoy it and see where I end up."

During his five-and-a-half years at The Hawthorns, McAuley has also been a good barometer of the dressing room mood. It is therefore telling that, when assessing a season in which to this point many outside observers would claim Albion have exceeded expectations, he instead focuses on results that have got away.

No question, there is a different feel about the Baggies this season, a "shift in mentality" McAuley calls it, which means results which were once accepted are no longer so.

"At the minute, we will take it, it's been alright," he says. "We had a difficult run of games, playing three in six days.

"It was a big ask but we got through it, only managed to get three points but we move on into Christmas and the new year.

"We are in a good place, confident. Maybe we can do something in January to strengthen and help us out. Hopefully we can have a good second half to the season to chase a few targets."

Albion's start – to sit eighth in the table ahead of the Boxing Day trip to Arsenal – has even seen talk of a possible challenge for European qualification.

Yet while McAuley will not be drawn into setting such a target –though he is keen to break the 50-point barrier which remained so elusive during the 2012/13 campaign under Steve Clarke – he admits the focus is very much on looking up rather than down.

"We have a team of experienced players with lads who have been at clubs and got used to winning things," he said.

"Maybe they have given it a bit of a different edge where they expect to go and win games.

"Maybe the mentality has changed a little bit where it is not just we want to stay in the Premier League, it is can we be in the Premier League and try and do something a bit more than that.

"It's nice where we are at the minute. We feel we could be a little further on in terms of points but hopefully we can build.

"It is all about progression. Moving on, moving forward. I am sure we will try and do that."