In four years between his debut against Uruguay at Anfield in March 2006 and last year’s World Cup finals, Bent started just twice for England. One was a friendly against Brazil in Doha, when most of the team pulled out and his side barely had the ball. The other was last year’s friendly against Japan in Austria, another dismal England display marred by complacency from some of those already  guaranteed a seat on the plane to South Africa.

Bent’s international career was going nowhere. He was unfairly judged on a couple of listless friendlies and in danger of being remembered for one costly miss after coming on as late substitute in the 3-2 defeat by Croatia at Wembley when a draw would have taken England to Euro 2008.

‘It was a massive game for the country and it probably did weigh on my mind,’ he said. ‘My club form probably suffered a little bit because of it but I’ve learned to forget about chances I’ve missed and move on to the next one.’

Bent has also buried the Redknapp slur. The remark was made in January 2009 when he was playing for Tottenham and headed a late chance wide in a draw against Portsmouth. ‘My missus could have scored that,’ said Redknapp. Six months later, the striker moved to Sunderland.

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