There are no glamorous candidates. Fabio Capello is bound to be an elitist and of his preferred outfield line-up until now eight of the 10 players were involved in the Champions League last season. Aaron Lennon will experience the competition in the next campaign, assuming Tottenham Hotspur come through a qualifier. Emile Heskey is the exception of sorts. He last appeared on that front with Liverpool in November 2002.

When Capello goes looking for goalkeepers the manager must watch some of the less prominent clubs. David James came bottom of the table with Portsmouth. Green's West Ham claimed the last place of safety in the Premier League. His fitness held up better than that of James and he was spared only one of the 38 matches in a trying campaign. It is as well that Green is a strong character with an independent cast of mind. Capello's first England game was in February 2008 but a year passed before the Italian picked him.

At least Green is not the sort to mope. While being emphatically ignored, he had the words "England's number 6" embroidered on his gloves for a match with Birmingham. He is much too intelligent to tease Capello and made it very clear that he had been mocking the obscurity of his candidacy at that stage. "I don't know where they are," he now says of the gloves. "It's a long way away in a chronological and metaphorical sense."

Dire circumstances have since worked in his favour. Others have suffered from injury or dwindling form and Green has made the most of that opportunity. He even had a bearing on the outcome of Monday's win over Mexico when twice denying Carlos Vela.