Today, less than two years later, he trained with them at our Enfield base again, for real this time, as an active member of the squad in advance of two decisive World Cup qualifiers against Slovenia and Lithuania.
No wonder our home-grown midfielder couldn’t keep the smile off his face when we caught up with him this afternoon, shortly after the Three Lions’ session!
“It’s brilliant, a dream come true to actually train with the boys as part of the squad,” said the 21-year-old midfielder, who impressed from the start against APOEL and Huddersfield Town last week before linking up initially with England Under-21s at St George’s Park, then being promoted to the senior squad on Monday night following the withdrawal of Fabian Delph and Phil Jones.