2002 was a year Matt Jansen will never forget.
Jansen was a striker quickly finding his feet in the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers.
He hit double figures as Rovers' leading marksmen in their first season back after promotion, and he scored the opening goal in their memorable League Cup final victory over Tottenham.
That form left him on the cusp of an England call-up just in time for the World Cup in Japan and South Korea that summer.
But then he was struck by terrible luck, as illness ruled him out of a pre-tournament friendly.
Worse was still to come, when during a summer trip to Rome he was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him fighting for his life.
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"It was pretty much life and death," Jansen told Mirror Sport , two decades on from the traumatic incident that he says left him a completely different player.
"They thought I was dead but apparently I squeezed my girlfriend's hand.
"I was in a coma for six days with a brain haemorrhage and it was touch and go for a long time.
"They eventually got me back over to England and I was seeing specialists and neuro-surgeons for a while. It was basically like I was a child. I had no inhibitions, I couldn't walk.
"So it was a case of rebuilding from scratch. They didn't think I would play again."
Jansen did return to action with Rovers, Bolton and a handful of other sides but would never rediscover the form that led him to being within a whisker of the England squad for the World Cup.
Illness may have robbed him of the chance to show his credentials in that pre-tournament friendly but even more galling was the manner in how the situation was handled.
Jansen says he was told he would be in the final squad prior to the final league game of the season - only for Arsenal's Martin Keown to get the nod instead.
"I was told I was going to be in," Jansen added.
"We were playing Liverpool the last game of the season. And our manager then, Graeme Souness, had been told by Sven-Göran Eriksson to make sure I didn't get injured as I was going to be in the World Cup squad.
"Souness came straight to me and told me, which was a massive confidence boost. I went out played well, scored. I think we lost 4-3 in the end.
"Obviously after the game I was buzzing about the England news. I got on the phone to my dad to tell him.
"The next day at Blackburn we were on a warm-down. Souness said I could leave early to listen to my name being announced. "There was a delay then another delay. Then I was driving home and it was on the radio and my name wasn't read out.
"I rang my agent trying to find out what went wrong. It wasn't until further down the line I found out they ended up going for an extra defender in Martin Keown at the 11th hour, instead of myself.
"And he never played a minute either!"
Jansen admits to still harbouring disappointment at the decision to be snubbed, but says the accident that would follow put things into perspective.
He played his last Premier League game at the age of 28 with Bolton and spells lower down the league followed. His last club was Chorley, who he would go on to manage for three years between 2015 and 2018.
Now aged 44, Jansen is at Stockport County in a role supporting the playing and management staff.
"I've thought hundreds of times 'if only I'd not got ill'," Jansen added.
"But it is a sliding doors moments.
"I always thought that I was only 24, I'm getting better and better and that my time will come.
"But then I ended up going over to Rome for a short break with my girlfriend who's now my wife, and that's when it (accident) happened.
"I'm still gutted that it shortened my career when I was on the up. I sometimes think 'what if?' but essentially you have to realise that there's more to life.
"I had a good career while it lasted. It does cheese you off but there is other things in life."
