By the time England line up against San Marino to start another World Cup campaign, it will be close to 500 days since John Stones won his last cap.
In that time, Gareth Southgate has trawled through a variety of defensive options featuring Harry Maguire, Tyrone Mings, Joe Gomez and Eric Dier, handed debuts to Fikayo Tomori and Conor Coady, and deployed Kyle Walker on the right side of three centre-halves.
‘It hurts, it really does,’ Stones told Micah Richards in a Sportsmail interview in December. ‘Playing for England… I can’t put into words what it means to me.