Jack Rodwell’s fight to relaunch his career at Blackburn is stark warning to Jadon Sancho and England’s young stars
Rovers chief Tony Mowbray reveals programme of mental and physical conditioning he hopes will rediscover one of English football's greatest wasted talents
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JACK RODWELL once stood in the same spotlight as current England starlets Joe Gomez, Jadon Sancho and Nathaniel Chalobah.
Midfielder Rodwell, then 20, made his debut in a win over Spain back in 2011 — just as Watford ace Chalobah did on Monday.
By the time he picked up his third cap in a 2-2 draw with Brazil in June 2013, Rodwell was being talked about as a future Three Lions captain.
Now the injury-plagued star, who once made a £15million switch from Everton to Manchester City, is trying to relaunch his career at Blackburn.
Rodwell, still only 27, is being guided through a programme of mental and physical conditioning by the Championship side.
At one point, Rodwell was in such a state he had a course of 50 injections to try to cure his fear of injuries.
While he was ridiculed by Sunderland fans, who voted him their worst-ever signing.
It is a stark reminder to Gareth Southgate’s group of bright young things that career paths can go down as well as up.
Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray said: “To play football today you need to not only be physically robust but emotionally robust.
“That is what we are trying to get out of Jack here.
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“Psychologically, he has to see that by training every day with real intensity. Almost all players have to play through pain at some stage.
“It is about having the confidence in your own body to believe that you can get through games, through training.
“Jack’s confidence in his body fell to zero and things just went from bad to worse for him.”
Rodwell’s hamstring troubles first surfaced at Everton, but then-City boss Roberto Mancini still swooped for the midfielder in August 2012.
There were only ten starts in two years at the Etihad, though, and a £10.25m switch to Sunderland followed in 2014.
But in four years at the Stadium of Light, Rodwell managed just 53 starts before his £43,000-a-week contract was torn up last summer.
Sadly for Rodwell his body kept letting him down and those injections did not do the trick, either.
He started for Blackburn in last month’s clash at Bolton, the first time he had done so in the Championship for over a year.
Mowbray admitted the full recovery process will be slow. He added: “My idea for him is that we turn him into a centre-half as part of a back three.
“He’s a natural for that position. It will also put less stress on his body — a body we don’t think was ever suited to the strains of playing midfield.
“But if we can get him through it, we will have one heck of a player on our hands... and maybe England might again, too.”