At 22 he has experienced more highs and lows in football than players almost twice his age, but Aston Villa defender Curtis Davies refuses to be downhearted at the latest turn of events in his life which will see him sidelined from the game he loves for at least six months.
Just weeks after an exuberant Davies faced the press to discuss his first ever senior England call-up, the 6ft 2in centre-back has had to have surgery on a ruptured Achilles tendon and faces a long road back to recovery under the watchful eye of Villa doctor Roddy MacDonald.
Davies has revealed he knew he had damaged the tendon in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Arsenal the minute he "heard the pop."
He had to be stretchered from the field at the Emirates Stadium and later underwent surgery at a North London hospital.
The result means that Davies will now miss Villa's vital run-in to the end of the season and their quest for European football. The former England Under-21 skipper will also now never know if he had featured in England coach Fabio Cappello's plans for the match against France in Paris later this month.
But Davies, who is at Villa on a season-long loan from West Bromwich Albion with the view to a permanent deal at the end of the year, has been used to setbacks before.
He missed out on playing his part in Albion's crucial promotion play-off at Wembley last season due to his second broken metatarsal of the season and was then ostracized in pre-season by Baggies' fans when he declared his intention to look for a move to a Premier League club.
Davies then endured a dreadful debut for Villa in the Carling Cup defeat by Leicester City but he went on to earn his place in the centre of defence for Martin O'Neill's team after Zat Knight was suspended following his red card at Stamford Bridge back in December.
Davies has since made a real impression on the Villa boss, the supporters and his teammates with his sterling defensive performances alongside the experienced Martin Laursen.
Ironically, his lay-off will now allow Knight to come back into contention for the remainder of the campaign.
But Davies is an optimist and said all he was concentrating on was getting back as soon as he could: "These things happen and I'll be back. To be honest the ankle doesn't actually feel too bad. There's not much pain there, just a few aches where the blood flow isn't quite right. Other than that I'm fine.
"I knew what it was. I'd just turned to get back into my position - I didn't do anything too strenuous and I felt and heard it pop.
"Look at Eduardo last week, a nothing tackle has caused him a really bad leg break and he's out for a while. Me, I was nowhere near anyone and I'm out for a while."
Villa boss Martin O'Neill was last night waiting for a medical report on defender Stephen O'Halloran after the Republic of Ireland international suffered a knee injury within hours of agreeing to a loan spell at League One side Leeds United.
O'Halloran was warming up before Saturday's match at Swindon Town when he pulled up. He is now on crutches and awaiting a medical scan on the knee.
