It was shortly before the hour mark of England's game against Hungary on Tuesday night that Gareth Southgate called Mason Mount back from his warm-up. At that stage, the Three Lions trailed 1-0 and had been lacklustre. The hope was Chelsea's player of the year would be able to inject his trademark energy and conjure a moment of magic.
That didn't happen – and to nobody's surprise in truth. The appearance was Mount's 63rd of a draining 2021/22 campaign. He had looked lethargic in England's previous Nations League games, worn down by the rigours of a season in which he had played in six different competitions for Chelsea.
Mount's introduction didn't alter the path of the game. In fact, during his time on the pitch, England collapsed rather spectacularly and were eventually beaten 4-0. It was their worst defeat on home soil for 94 years and resulted in many in the crowd calling for Gareth Southgate to be sacked ahead of the World Cup.
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"It was a difficult four games and these things happen," said Mount in an interview on This Morning to promote children's charity Together for Short Lives. "If you put it into perspective, over the last few years we got into a semi-final at the World Cup and reached a Euros final.
"So this is just the start and while these things happen, it's a bump in the road. Now we're fully focused on the next camp and the World Cup coming up."
The 23-year-old continued: "As players, we're very disappointed with the performance, but the most important thing at that time is to stay together, stay strong, stay as a team. We know within the team what we can do so it's about working hard now.
"It's something we need to look at – it's difficult to look at the game [straight after] because we're all going away. It's been a long season and it's time for us to go and have a break. It does stay on your mind after something like that and it's definitely something we'll look at and work hard [to correct]."
Mount – and a host of other Chelsea players who've been away on international duty over the past fortnight – will now jet off on their respective holidays for a much-deserved break. It will not be too long, however, with pre-season beginning under Thomas Tuchel on July 2.
The 2022/23 campaign is going to be one like no other. In late November, club football will stop for more than a month due to the World Cup in Qatar. England will be there and despite their disappointing recent performances and results, there will be an expectation that Southgate's side go deep into the competition.
"Our team is pretty young but having the experience at the Euros helps massively," said Mount on England's World Cup hopes. "You learn from the experiences you have, you learn from the final where we went wrong. And you learn and you get better with that. It's only up from here. We're obviously very excited for the World Cup and we want to make the nation proud."
