Until recently fracturing his foot, ruling him out for 10 weeks, the Southampton midfielder had been a regular component of Ronald Koeman's impressive south coast side. Nigel Adkins showed a tremendous amount of faith in Ward-Prowse by starting the then 17-year-old for the Saints' first game back in the Premier League, against champions Manchester City. Since then, his introduction to regular top flight football has been gentle and methodical. The midfielder hails from the same production batch as Calum Chambers and Luke Shaw, so a similar big-money move is inevitable in his future. In the meantime, he's continuing to mature and has progressed to the England under-21s, where his stunning free kick against Brazil was voted 'Goal of the Tournament' at 2014's Toulon competition.
From Chester-le-Street, with Newcastle as my spiritual home. 24 years old, I'm at Sunderland University studying for a Sports Journalism MA. It's all about football and WWE. Wordplay jokes and puns are also encouraged.
