Repino: Four years ago, John Stones was a young defender at Everton who made Roy Hodgson’s standby list for Brazil and travelled to Miami for the pre-tournament camp but was back home when England were knocked out after back-to-back defeats inside the opening week.
“I was young, very young, and I felt I had to prove myself to a lot of my heroes, players I’d watched over the years. I was very nervous going into that England squad. It’s difficult to explain. I felt I had to show the lads what I could do and I almost tried too hard.”
Four years on, Stones is now a mainstay of the England defence.
“Gareth [Southgate] has shown a lot of faith in me,” Stones says. “I can’t express enough how thankful I am. All I can do is keep working hard in the gym, review my games and try to improve in as many respects as I can.”
That is just as well because Panama’s 3-0 defeat by Belgium suggests England’s next opponents in Group G will take a physical approach.
“It’s something we’ve spoken about,” Stones says, looking ahead to Sunday’s game in Nizhny Novgorod. “But we’re going to stick to our game plan and cause them as many threats as we can using our own style of play.”
