James Chester: The player who sacrificed his career for Aston Villa

So why put his body on the line?

“I think it’s just the way I was brought up at home, the way we were brought up through the academy at Manchester United,” he says. “I’d like to think it epitomises me as a person.

“There’s always certain clubs you play for that take a hold of you and Aston Villa did that. That first season was difficult but as soon as you walk through the door you understand the size of the club and you see the potential.

“The first season was difficult but the aim when I signed was to get back into the Premier League. The club was turning itself around and had a really good togetherness – and when you believe in the cause you’re fighting for you’re probably willing to go further.”

Villa did go further, but Chester eventually went elsewhere.

He waited 11 months before he was able to return to the pitch, playing a handful of Premier League games before moves to Stoke City, Derby and – after time without a club – eventually time in League Two with Barrow and, most recently, Salford.

The knee affected performances, random muscular injuries began to impact availability. While Villa fans rediscovered belief in achieving at the top, Chester found his joy when he dropped to the other end.

“I was probably kicking the can down the road for the last two or three years but I’m glad I did,” he says.

“It gave me the opportunity to play in front of my children. I didn’t see myself playing in League Two at this stage of my career, but the year at Barrow was some of the most fun and best memories the game gave me, just to remember that feelings of why you first play football.

“When you’re in professional football for a long time you probably forget with the pressure of the clubs you play for the results required, just enjoying the game and the company you’re in.”

Perhaps that was best illustrated as part of the ‘Together Stronger’ Wales group under Chris Coleman.

“My wife actually asked me on the day I retired what was the favourite part of my career, and I said the Euros,” he says, before laughing that she didn’t roll her eyes given most of the fans and squad of that time still happily reminisce of a summer that has become almost mythical in Welsh football.

“I think she was worried I was going to be an emotional state so I got a pass to talk about it. But I think everyone who shared that journey would say the same.”