IRREPLACEABLE RICE'S SENIOR ROLE HOLDS THE KEY FOR BOSS

"LIFE does come at you fast," said Declan Rice ahead of England's final Euro 2024 warm-up friendly against Iceland last week.

- Dan Kilpatrick

Rice was contemplating the rapid progression of his career - from West Ham captain and European trophy-winner to now the Premier League's most complete box-to-box midfielder with Arsenal - and nowhere is his ever-increasing influence more apparent than in the national team.

Rice has been an important cog for Gareth Southgate since his debut in 2019, but it was not so long ago that he still felt like a junior partner in a side led by Jordan Pickford, Harry Maguire, Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane.

This summer, though, Rice will be one of the new leaders of an exciting but inexperienced England squad and, with Henderson and Kalvin Phillips axed, he is now the team's elder statesman in midfield.

"I saw that I was the oldest [midfielder]," Rice, who captained England for the first time on his 50th cap in March, said last week.

"I didn't really know how to take it, to be honest."

Like every challenge in his career, Rice can be expected to take his new seniority in his stride, but it is hard to overstate just how important the 25-year-old feels to England's summer.