Jack Wilshere is younger than Virgil van Dijk, which seems as interesting a place as any to start. One is captain of the champions but going through a difficult stretch form-wise. The other spent Sunday reviewing footage of a 0-0 home draw against Rotherham United and beginning preparations for Barnsley: “They will press us”.

In our minds they belong to different eras only because pain became Wilshere’s universal experience so often that it broke his first career. Think back to that wretched Iceland exit, England’s lowest major tournament ebb since 1950. The false memory is that it ended international careers, but only Wilshere played his last England game in Nice. He was 24.

By then Wilshere was already fighting against a tide of injuries, pain, fear and rehab. Following Euro 2016, on l

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