England vs Portugal reaction: The interior agony of Jack Wilshere, fearing another tournament on the fringe

The Arsenal man has been overtaken by Tottenham’s talents but is ready to fight for his place

Jack Wilshere's presence in the squad has been called into question (Getty)

There was a pained look behind Jack Wilshere’s eyes. He is one of those with whom a conversation in the general bedlam of Wembley’s media mixed zone is usually worth the time.

Yet despite the usual mannerisms on Thursday night – the studious concentration on a question and pause before the reply – there was no getting away from the fact that seems to fear the worst about a starting place for England’s opening fixture in Russia a week from now.

“I said before that I was ready. I was ready to be in the squad,” Wilshere stated. “If I felt like I wasn’t ready to play I wouldn’t be here. I want to play, I want to be in the starting XI, of course. Every single player does, but it’s down to the manager,” he said.

And then: “I feel good. I’ve been back in [training] for nine or 10 weeks now. I feel fresh, I feel good. I needed the games, of course, everybody needs games. You can train as much as you like but you can’t get that competitiveness in training. I feel good after these three games…”

Wilshere may not be aware of the extent to which Roy Hodgson’s off-the-record conversations about him reveal the manager’s belief that he is a very precious commodity in this England team. In once such discussion, the line of questioning drifted to the issue of Wilshere’s nocturnal habits. The 24-year-old had just been involved at the time in the incident outside London’s Café de Paris for which he recently received a police caution. An otherwise very convivial Hodgson was indignant that the topic had even been brought up. What a player got up to at 3am was none of the manager’s business, he said, adding with unintentional comic effect, that he didn’t want Wilshere to know what he was doing at that hour, either.

His lack of time on a football field has not helped im. Wilshere started just one game – the last of Arsenal’s season - and had just 141 minutes of football last season as he recovered from a broken leg. The received wisdom was that Thursday night’s starting XI might be close to the one which starts against Leonid Slutsky’s side in Marseilles and if that is the case then it would seem that time for full rehabilitation has run out.

But the broader problem for Hodgson is how to employ him in the diamond midfield system he has seized upon as his way of simultaneously making the most of all his attacking talents. The deployment of two strikers in such a system requires extra defensive midfield ballast. Though James Milner did not impress hugely against the Portuguese, he still offers more of the biting challenges and box-to-box athleticism which this England structure needs from a deep midfielder. The defence needs all the ballast it can get.

Wilshere has been overtaken by Tottenham’s talents. There can be no doubt that Eric Dier offers better defensive midfield ballast. Dele Alli has walked away with the more creative role he would once have assumed to be his own. His natural ball-playing talent is beginning to look like a luxury Hodgson can’t afford.

Wilshere has been the coming man for so long that another failure to land at this summer’s tournament will be felt more acutely. There had been talk of the last World Cup being his moment, only for Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson to be those in whom Hodgson trusted, with terribly poor results.

Wilshere is did not want to go along with the notion that he is one of the older ones now, ready to pass down experience. “There’re players in the squad who have a lot more experience than me,” he said, citing Rooney. “His first tournament was in 2004. He’s got a lot more tournament experience than me. He helps people including myself.”

Neither was he in the mood to discuss how he found the experience of being away in an England tournament camp in 2014. “It’s completely different,” he said. “We’re away for a number of weeks. We’ve already been away for a number of weeks. You have to get used to living away. I’m used to it now. We’ve got players in the squad and it’s going to be their first tournament. That will play into our hands because with that you get the no-fear factor, same as me at the World Cup. I didn’t know what to expect.”

Had he found Brazil difficult? “Of course we found it difficult because of the results.’

So he had found Brazil difficult, then? “No I didn’t at all. Some people are different.”

Perhaps it was a bit much to expect that introducing the subject of England’s Tottenham players, in a note of levity, would elicit results. ‘They’ve impressed me,” he said. “They’re doing well. It was my first meet up with them. Last time I was playing none of them… I think Andros [Townsend] was in the squad. They’re good players, they’re great lads as well I get on with them as well. Everyone expects me to say I don’t but I get on with them, they’re great lads.’

So they must have enjoyed a laugh about the “What do we think of Tottenham?” song that Wilshere brings out for big occasions?

“No,” he said. “We don’t mention that.”