Before Phil Foden started and scored in Manchester City's final pre-World Cup fixture against Brentford, he had been benched for four of the previous six games.
The two games he started were the less-important Champions League clashes against Dortmund and Sevilla, with qualification to the knockout stages already secured and no need for City to field their strongest team. After an incredibly strong start to the season, Foden suddenly found himself out of Pep Guardiola's first-choice plans in the last few weeks.
Guardiola downplayed the change, saying all players in the City squad must rotate, and he named the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gundogan who have also been in and out of the team. For Foden, the World Cup couldn't have come at a better time.
