Former Manchester City defender John Stones described his ability to continually bounce back from recurring injury setbacks is one of his “greatest achievements”.
The 32-year-old was named in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for this summer’s World Cup despite injuries preventing him from playing a full season for his club in the last couple of years.
He was restricted to 18 appearances for Manchester City last season and revealed in October that he considered retiring as a player.
Stones, who could start in England’s World Cup opener against Croatia on Wednesday, told the BBC: “It was a difficult period when I said that and I hope I don’t get to that again.
“We can all compare ourselves to all the people or different players, different eras and think about how their journey was or how it could have been different and I am a culprit of that – ‘why are these things happening to me? It doesn’t happen to other people’.
“And I really had to dig deep and I am proud of myself for being so mentally strong throughout and coming out the other end of those scenarios or situations.
“I feel like one of my greatest achievements is to keep coming back from those setbacks, no matter how big they are and being on top form and going back into games and playing at such a high level.”
A hamstring injury in February last year cut short his 2024-25 campaign, while an earlier foot problem had helped restrict him to 11 Premier League appearances.
He missed two months of the 2025-26 season with a thigh issue and played no part in England’s friendlies against Uruguay and Japan in March due to a calf injury.
But Tuchel nonetheless trusted him with a place in the squad for this summer’s tournament, and he started alongside Ezri Konsa – displacing Manchester City teammate Marc Guehi – in England’s pre-World Cup friendly against Costa Rica, and could be in line for a starting berth against Croatia.
Stones has appeared for England in five previous major tournaments having made his senior debut in a friendly win against Peru in 2014 and is poised to make his 90th appearance.
The former Barnsley and Everton centre-half announced in April that he would be leaving City at the end of the season.
