Options: Sweden think Roy Hodgson will pick Andy Carroll

The rise to senior status has  nevertheless come suddenly. Here, after all, is a player who made only one appearance during the qualifiers; who scored his first international goal in the friendly against Belgium nine days before that  opening group game with France.

And yet he sounded like a senior pro; a player schooled at Old Trafford and blessed with great belief not only in his ability but the ability of his team-mates.

Will England attack with more fluency against the Swedes in Kiev tomorrow? ‘Most definitely,’ he said.

‘Obviously we’d have liked to have started with a win in the first group game but we know as a team that we want to get forward and get more goals.

‘You’ll see a much more determined England side. We want to get more bodies into our attacking third and create more opportunities and when they arrive the strikers will be ready to put them in.’

On Wednesday they did not seem that ready for anything.

Roy Hodgson had said it would be a ‘sensible session’ but the physical demands of that contest in Donetsk on Monday have clearly taken their toll because the first-team players did a light warm-up at the Hutnik Stadium before returning to the gym for more recovery work.

Impressive: Welbeck spoke wisely

It is not a cause for any real concern. Not when the Swedes are busy bickering among themselves or playing a training game that involves baring one’s backside and inviting your team-mates to strike a ball against it from 20-odd yards.

The Swedes have convinced themselves that Andy Carroll will start ahead of Welbeck on
Friday, in particular because of their apparent vulnerability to headers. Six of the last seven goals they have conceded have been scored with the head.

But Welbeck poses an aerial threat as well as the talent to score the kind of goal he did against  Belgium. ‘Getting that first England goal gives you that confidence boost,’ he said.

‘The France game was an opportunity to show what I can do. I held the ball up pretty well and brought others into play. But I think, going forward, I really want to get some shots off at goal because I’m a striker and I really want to be scoring goals as well.

‘But I don’t see any need to worry about anything. It’s football and I love football. You’ve just got to take what comes in your stride.’

Wise words from an impressive young man.

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