Eighteen months after helping England reach the final of the European Championships, the mercurial Jadon Sancho could barely have been further out of Gareth Southgate's sight during the 2022 World Cup.
Having lost his way at Manchester United, the star once tipped to shine brightest for the Three Lions in Qatar splintered off from his Spain-bound Red Devils teammates last month and embarked on a solo trip to the Netherlands.
There, Sancho has been grafting on an individual training programme designed by manager Erik ten Hag in a bid to reboot his slumping yet potential-filled career.
Working with a Dutch coach who Ten Hag knows well, their aim is to rediscover the form that compelled United to spend £73million on his services last summer. The ex-Borussia Dortmund hotshot has plenty of reasons for optimism, too; be it top-level coaching, family support, talent or time. And it's the latter, the most glaring silver lining of all, that he and we need to keep in mind.
That's the message from Carlisle United boss Paul Simpson, who coached Sancho as part of the England youth setup during his formative years at Manchester City. Having watched the winger establish himself as one of the country's top talents as a teenager, Simpson knows first-hand just how special of a player the 22-year-old can be.
"I think the big thing that I take out of it is that he's still a young lad," Simpson told Mirror Football when quizzed on Sancho's situation. "You probably have to say he had a meteoric rise.
"He signed for City when he was young and decided to leave because he couldn't see an opportunity. He then went to Dortmund which surprised a lot of people, but he was absolutely outstanding and did well for England in the development teams. And then he's come back here to United and it just hasn't happened yet.
"But he's still a young lad. Jadon's 22 years old and he's got a loads of football ahead of him. He's not coming towards the end of his career, he's at football club with a group of staff there who will look after him. It then has to come down to Jadon, he's got to do the work to get himself of back in the team."
Following a difficult first campaign at Old Trafford managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, Sancho enjoyed a promising pre-season this summer under new boss Ten Hag. The Camberwell-born ace then started 10 of the Red Devils' first Premier League games, registering two goals and one assist. But since being ruthlessly subbed off early in the second half United's 1-1 draw at Chelsea on October 22, he hasn't played a single minute.
In his place, £80m arrival Antony - favourite of Ten Hag's at former club Ajax - has nailed down the right flank, and academy prospect Alejandro Garnacho, 18, is even providing the main source of competition. But Sancho isn't alone in being a big-money Englishman ousted by one of Ten Hag's new signings, as Simpson pointed out a comparison from within the Old Trafford dressing room.
"You could say the same about Harry Maguire - different age and everything - but everybody wrote him off last season and even this season," the Carlisle-born coach, who won the under-20 World Cup with England in 2017, explained.
"He's done really well for England, I hope he gets a chance at United if he's worthy of a place and I'm quite sure that'll happen with Jadon because he hasn't become a bad footballer overnight. He's obviously just hit the first bump in the road for a young person and I hope he comes through it because he has got as much ability as any player; he is a fantastic footballer.
"It's now just about doing what Erik ten Hag wants him to do, getting himself into a better place and I'm quite sure we'll see a lot more of Jadon Sancho."
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Ten Hag hopes as much, too. Even though the Red Devils will be back in action on Wednesday by facing Burnley in the Carabao Cup, the Dutchman hasn't set a deadline for Sancho to return from Holland and resume training with the rest of the squad. "I have had several talks with Jadon," Ten Hag revealed whilst he was still in Spain overseeing United's warm-weather training camp.
"He's on a physical programme and our aim is to get him back as quickly as possible, but I can't give a prognosis of when that will be. There's huge competition with England. Even at the World Cup, every game is difficult to know who to start because there's so much talent in the offensive line. When you don't show it week by week you can fall out of the squad, which is what happened.
"He's not fit enough to be here - he wasn't in the right status, in the right fitness state, so now he's on an individual programme and we want him to finish that programme and hopefully, we'll see him back soon."