Shaun taking nothing for granted as scars linger

If he entertained his audience against Israel at the weekend, he proved much more of a challenge to those who met him at the England team hotel in Hertfordshire on Monday.

Scroll down for more

Was he excited by his new partnership on England's right side with Micah Richards? 'I don't mind who I play with,' he said with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

In fairness to Wright-Phillips, he is not paid to make sparkling conversation. Not by Chelsea and certainly not by the Football Association. But the 25-year-old winger is only just emerging from a tough two years and his reluctance to discuss the experience suggests the scars are deeper than he would care to admit. Publicly anyway.

Here, after all, is a player whose career suddenly came to a grinding halt. At Manchester City, he was a rapidly rising star, a favourite with the fans and someone who marked his international debut, against Ukraine three years ago, with a super goal.

He was suddenly seen as a genuine alternative to David Beckham, a player who offered the kind of pace and athleticism that has never been part of the then England captain's game.

Then, however, the success he had enjoyed persuaded Chelsea to pay City £21million and Wright-Phillips all but disappeared. At Stamford Bridge, the competition for places was too intense and after making just 10 starts and failing to score a goal he was overlooked by Sven Goran Eriksson for the 2006 World Cup.

Last season was not a great deal better. More appearances, perhaps, but most of them after being sent on from the bench by Jose Mourinho. By the summer he considered moving on, and only stayed after John Terry encouraged him to keep working and keep faith with his considerable ability.

So far, it has proved to be sound advice. Wright-Phillips has started in Chelsea's five Premier League games this season and has made a successful return to the England team.

On Saturday, he combined impressively with Micah Richards, offering the kind of attacking threat down the right flank that has often been beyond Beckham and Gary Neville, and which could spell the end for Beckham and Neville as first-team regulars.

While Neville will undoubtedly return to the squad once he has recovered from injury, another good performance from Wright-Phillips and Beckham might discover that, at 32 and now in Los Angeles, the chance to reach 100 caps has gone.

But ask Wright-Phillips to reflect on more testing times and the shutters come down. How did he feel when Beckham was recalled to the squad in the spring?

'For me it was a plus,' he said. 'To have anyone with qualities like that in the England squad can't be a negative thing. All it does is make the competition higher, which means every player has to be better. So for me and the country that makes it better.'

Believe he was being sincere and you will believe anything. After all, how long have players like Wright-Phillips waited for Beckham to move to one side?

But Wright-Phillips is guarded perhaps because he remains fearful of a return to the international wilderness and the Chelsea bench. Perhaps because, after two difficult years, he feels it is all just going a little too well.

Asked how important it is for him to follow one good performance with another against Russia at Wembley tomorrow, he said: 'First things first. We've got training today and tomorrow. Secondly, no one knows the team. I just want to work hard in training and we'll see where it goes from there.'

And yet he tried to present himself as a 'positive thinker'. 'I'm not a negative thinker,' he said. 'I always try to think positive. Life has to be a positive thing because you are the only person who can make it happen.'

Had he made it happen by working even harder during the summer? 'All I did was relax and socialise with a lot of friends and family, and watch TV,' he said. 'That was my summer. That was the key thing, time to switch off, so when I came back I was fully focused on the job itself.'

Missing out on the World Cup was, he said, a 'positive'. 'I think it made me more determined to be involved in the next stuff coming up. Sometimes you have to use things that don't go your way and turn it into a driving force.

'I have never worried about not playing enough. I am a great believer that things happen for a reason. I might not have been playing but I have been learning. I have kept my head down and worked hard.'

It might just be Wright-Phillips approaches life in much the same way he takes on opponents. Always bouncing back, always bouncing off defenders and yet somehow retaining possession of the ball. There is a resilience about him as a footballer that you have to admire.

A refusal to accept defeat. Why, yesterday he refused to even recognise its existence.