Gym’ll fix it: new-look Walcott back with bang

INJURIES change footballers, and not always for the worse. Time earmarked for recuperation does not have to be wasted and, for a dedicated, lucky few, players can return changed men.

By a quirk of the calendar, this is literally the case for Theo Walcott. When England’s medical staff carried him off the training pitch at London Colney last November, his right shoulder ripped from its socket after a challenge from Scott Parker, he was a bona fide teenager.

When he returned for Arsenal’s FA Cup fifth round cruise against Burnley in March, his salad days were almost over: eight days later, he turned 20 and finally discarded the tag of his nation’s most trumpeted teen.