Jack's back

GREALISH'S EARLY FORM AT EVERTON POINTS TO A RESURGENCE FROM £100M PLAYMAKER

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WITH four assists in his first two Premier League starts, birthday boy Jack Grealish - 30 yesterday - has made a dream start at Everton.

Those displays, setting up goals for Iliman Ndiaye and James Garner in the 2-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion and then for Beto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in the 3-2 victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers, have ensured the England international has been named on a list of eight candidates to be EA Sports Premier League Player of the Month for August.

Grealish became the first £100million Englishman when he moved from Aston Villa to Manchester City in 2021 but, in days gone by, reaching your 30th birthday was often considered something of a landmark for outfield players as they were deemed to have moved into the 'veteran' category.

Dixie Dean, Everton's all-time leading goalscorer, who netted his record 60 league goals in a season when he was just 21, was 30 when he played the last of his 433 matches for the Blues (having registered on 383 occasions) in 1937.

But there have been many advances in sports science since then, both in terms of monitoring fitness levels and physical demands, players' diet and the medical attention that they receive.