ROARING FORTIES

Veteran Milner set to join an elite club

- BY RICHARD LEWIS

WHEN James Milner replaced Jason Wilcox in the final minutes of an astonishing Premier League match at Upton Park on November 10, 2002, he was a teenager living every schoolboy's dream.

Tonight, 8,459 days later, he is set to join an elite club.

Milner celebrated his 40th birthday last Sunday and this evening, at the home where he twice won the title, he could become just the fifth outfield player of his age to appear in the Premier League.

He needs no introduction or plaudits, so let his manager Fabian Hurzeler tell us all we need to know about where he sits as a football legend.

"If you see him working, you can understand how it is possible," said Brighton boss Hurzeler.

"It's incredible what he's capable of doing for his age.