The former Seagulls skipper returned to the club for the third time in the summer, and signed a two-year-deal in both a playing and coaching role for Simon Rusk’s development side.
In an exclusive interview with MyAlbion Audio, he spoke about how tough the last few years have been on the road away from his family, and how happy he now is to be back on the south coast and living closer to home.
He said, “I’ve only had to move my family when I was at Norwich, we all lived down there as a family.
“My young boy Ryan was only about 18 months at the time, and then I had my little girl a couple of years later when I moved to Brighton the first time. I’ve been very lucky to have been at home most of my career.
“When I was young I went to Wrexham on loan, but that was only for a little while and the family stayed behind. Then I was at Charlton which was only half hour away, but then I went to Scunthorpe and Newport County which were long distances and short-term deals, so I didn’t move the family.”
The 35-year-old midfielder spent time with the latter two sides during the 2017/18 and 2018/19 campaigns, and admitted it was a hard time in his career.
“I was away from my family half of the week and that was tough, my little boy is my best mate and every time I’d leave he’d know I was going for three or four days.
“He’d be holding back the tears because I do loads with him when I’m at home and we have such a good time together. It broke my heart for the two years, I put myself in his shoes and thought about how an eight or nine-year old wasn’t seeing his dad for three or four days at a time.”
A brief stint at Yeovil Town followed, as a player-coach, but Crofts was only with the Glovers for a month before the opportunity to return to the Seagulls came about.
“This opportunity arose and now I see my family pretty much every day. People think that putting your kids to bed every night is a regular thing, but for me it wasn’t.
"It makes me so happy and I’m back at a club which is such a special place for me - I want to give everything I can.
“My kids see it as an adventure and they both love coming to the stadium to watch games,” he added. “My boy loves it and he’ll be a Brighton fan for sure, he’s always wanted to come back and watch matches when I went away.
“When the club were kind enough to invite me to come to games he’d come with me and now hopefully he’ll keep enjoying it like I am.”
Albion fans can listen to the half-hour interview with the Welshman below, as well as a selection of other exclusive chats over on MyAlbion Audio.