Cast your mind back to November 2017. Lewis Hamilton had just won his fourth Formula One World Championship, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement.
Oh, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek was called up to the England senior squad for the first time. The Chelsea midfielder, who was on loan at Crystal Palace at the time, made his debut against Germany and played the full 90 minutes in a goalless draw. He won man of the match after a superb display.
After impressing on the international scene, as well as for Palace in the Premier League, Gareth Southgate's decision to include Loftus-Cheek in his 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup did not come as too much of a surprise.
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Loftus-Cheek made his World Cup debut against Tunisia in England's opening match, where he replaced Dele Alli with 10 minutes to go. Southgate then started the Chelsea midfielder in back-to-back group matches against Panama and Belgium, where he continued to impress. Unfortunately for Loftus-Cheek, he was dropped from the XI for the Round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals, where he was an unused substitute in all three games.
He then made appearances for the Three Lions in international friendlies up until November 2018, 12 months on from making his senior debut for his country. Then, in May 2019, the unthinkable happened to Loftus-Cheek: a ruptured Achilles that would eventually keep him sidelined for over a year.
Speaking in November 2021, Loftus-Cheek told Chelsea's official website: "After I came back from that injury, I didn't feel the same. I'm a powerful player who relies on his body and strength, but I lost a lot of that, so I felt like I needed a season where I could just play as much as possible [spent the 2020/21 season on loan at Fulham].
"I had to put in a lot of extra hours in the gym, especially on my calves, because I lost a lot of the muscle mass. A lot of extra work went into it, but I always believed I could get back to that point I was at before the injury."
In truth, that terrible injury has hampered Loftus-Cheek's England career. He hasn't represented his country since November 2018. Southgate is clearly a big fan of the powerful midfielder. The England boss will surely be impressed with what he has seen from Loftus-Cheek this season – particularly under Graham Potter.
He's been used as a right wing-back, where he has consistently impressed, or in the centre of midfield, a more natural position. Against Aston Villa on Sunday, Loftus-Cheek was moved out to the right-hand side, but then he changed back and became more central again. It's a testament to his ability in the middle of the pitch that Chelsea lost a lot of something when he was moved to wing-back.
Southgate was in attendance at Villa Park on Sunday, where he saw a lot of players from either side that could be called up to the World Cup squad that is announced later this week. The England manager would have loved what he saw from Mason Mount, who scored two superb goals in the Midlands, but Loftus-Cheek glowing on the pitch would surely have caught his eye as well.
It's nothing more than an outside shout right now, but Loftus-Cheek has quietly played himself into contention of being named in Southgate's squad. He continues to answer the call from former head coach Thomas Tuchel, who earlier in the year asked Loftus-Cheek to unleash his "monster".
"He needs to push himself to the limit," Tuchel said on Loftus-Cheek in April. "That is the challenge because he is so physical and can be so physical.
"In general, he is shy and a very calm person. He needs to discover this monster in him and unleash this on a regular basis because it is absolutely necessary.
"It is not enough to be just on the pitch. It might if you regard his last years, it may seem as a first step that he is a regular, but I'm not happy because this is not enough. We cannot let him think it is enough. He needs to constantly push himself to the limit."
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