Manchester City defender John Stones has shown that players can make it at the highest level, no matter how bleak their circumstances appear.
Stones had not been enjoying the best of times at City, especially around 2020.
The England international appeared destined for an exit from Pep Guardiola's team.
However, he has found his best form and at 29 is now a key member of the Spaniard's team.
It was probably one of the hardest times in my career," Stones stated, per The Mail.
I went back to looking at myself, being super-critical and what I could do better.
I went into every fine detail, what food to eat, when to eat, how to train, what else I could do, everything.
I'd put in extra work straight after training or even late at night. I'd look into small margins, break things down to see how I could get back into the team. It was a big learning curve and made me who I am today.
But I still never thought about leaving City. As soon as you have that mindset, you've killed yourself and I always wanted to stay.
It wasn't a case of telling anyone else I want to prove it to you" - I wanted to prove to myself that I was good enough to be at City, deserve to be here and could bring things to the team."