Toby Sibbick has cut off his dreadlocks for the business end of Barnsley’s season while his father is growing his beard until the defender gets his first Reds goal.
The 21-year-old has had long dreadlocks during his time at Oakwell but turned up to training this week with a short new haircut. He joked: “You could say it’s my business end of the season haircut. I just thought it was time for a change so let’s see where it takes me.
“My hair was too difficult to maintain during lockdown so I thought I might as well chop it off.”
Sibbick is yet to score for the Reds in 36 appearance but hopes the breakthrough comes soon. He said: “My dad is growing his beard until I score.
“I need to get it out of the way because my mum’s not really liking it.”
Sibbick and Michael Sollbauer have been rotated in the right centre-back role by Valerien Ismael since January.
“It’s what is best for the team.
“I respect the gaffer’s decision and Solly because he’s a top player. I am always behind the team and all I want is for us to win. Solly brings extra experience to the back three and you can always talk to him. He’s very vocal whether he plays or not and he’s a role model around the club. He’s someone I definitely look up to.”
Sibbick, who is looking into playing international football for Uganda, has been inspired by team-mate Michal Helik’s call-up for Poland. He has also praised Mads Andersen who signed in the same window as Sibbick and has made huge improvements in the last year. Sibbick said: “I see Mads in training every day and I could always see his quality. He’s grown into the role, got more confidence and that’s stood out on the pitch. He’s got a high amount of assists for a centre half so he is contributing at both ends of the pitch.”
Sibbick has praised Ismael for renewing his confidence from January after loans to Hearts in Scotland and KV Oostende in Belgium.
“I was short of confidence for a long time but as soon as he (Ismael) told me he could see me playing for Barnsley, I gave everything on the training pitch.
“Last season we had a lot of inexperienced players and no one knew how tough the Championship is apart from a few. We got ourselves out of that on the last day and we’ve learned from it. We have put ourselves in a great position.”
