JAMES Ward-Prowse says he feels “in a really good place” as he nervously waits to discover whether he has made the cut for England’s Euro 2020 squad. The Saints skipper completed the remarkable feat of playing every Premier League minute for the second season in succession, with 90 minutes for his side at West Ham United on Sunday. Speaking to the FA last month about the early weeks under Hasenhuttl,
James Ward-Prowse said: “I was in a really difficult position. I didn’t know where to turn in terms of my career. I had a lot of difficulties, trying to regain some form and trying to play regularly. I think that was a big moment for me to realise that with the change of manager, things weren’t going to change as well as I wanted it to and that I had to revert back to the training pitch and show everybody that I was willing to fight and to show that I was able to play under this manager. That was a big moment where I had to kind of step back and I remember on the way back from Huddersfield having a really good, hard think about how I would be going forward and how I could change to use this as a springboard to be better. I just did a lot of thinking myself. It was a real rock-bottom moment for me, but a great moment looking back at it to realise, actually, I need to change something, I need to do something different and work harder than I’ve ever worked before.”
Asked if he always believed he could make that breakthrough into the senior England squad again, even when he was struggling for regular minutes at Saints,
James Ward-Prowse said: “You can’t think about England unless you do well for your club. So at that moment in time I wasn’t even thinking about England, I was more focused about playing for Southampton and to get in that team and to show the England manager why I should be there. It’s not an easy journey. You’re going to have ups and downs, you’re going to have challenges come your way and you have to be mentally resilient, you have to be strong and believe in yourself. Up to now I’ve done that and I feel as though I’m in a really good place.”
