Like most people Michael Ricketts will watch England take on Austria in Vienna this evening with a combination of indifference and ennui. Steve McClaren's men are no-one's idea of Brazil.

But then most people aren't like Michael Ricketts. Most people haven't played for England, most people haven't won the League Cup and most people haven't spent more than a decade being handsomely remunerated for playing what is essentially a game.

Put it like that and who are we to judge that Rickett's career, which has now gone a full circle since his return to Walsall earlier this month, is a story of unfulfilled promise? How many goals have you scored at Old Trafford?

Not that the supremely laid back Ricketts puts it like that. For some reason he doesn't share the frustration of those who claim he could have done more. For him 11 years in football is an achievement in itself.

It is nothing, however, compared to his rise to the summit of the English game when, in February 2002, he lined up alongside David Beck-ham, Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard against The Netherlands.

The match ended 1-1 and became famous for the contribution of another debutant - Darius Vassell, whose scintillating scissors kick gave the visitors a draw against a team comprising most of the modern day Dutch greats.

England are likely to send out a few more hopefuls tonight, young men all hoping to avoid the fate that befell Ricketts - that most hurtful of epithets, One Cap Wonder.

It'd be enough to turn anyone sour yet it is with complete sincerity that he dissects the phenomenon that is modern day international football. For Ricketts even Brazil aren't like Brazil.

"Personally I watch international games and think it's quite boring," he says. "The Champions League has taken over as the big spectacle.

"I watch it but the standard of play, whether it be Brazil or whoever, is quite slow. It doesn't really get you going.

"I watch but I don't ever wonder what might have been. Things happen for a reason. It wasn't my time, that's just fate. I had a good go at it, life goes on and I go on."

Coincidentally that match also represented the zenith of Vassell's career but while the former Aston Villa man is still trying to impose himself on the Premiership with Manchester City, since then Ricketts has played for nine different clubs, only one of which is in the top flight.

The journey that began, in Walsall's red against Rotherham in August 1996, has come a full circle. The Birmingham-born forward announced his return to the Black Country with the first goal in last Saturday's first round FA Cup victory over Shrewsbury Town.

He is back at the Bescot, though it's now the Banks's Stadium, attempting to get the games and score the goals that will propel Walsall up the League One table and him back into the spotlight. Whether all he achieves is a return to the Oldham Athletic first team or convinces Richard Money to engage his goal scoring services on a full time basis, he maintains not to mind.

But what he is clear about is that if it all ended tomorrow, he'd have had a ball.

"I have played for England, the biggest club in the world, I am very proud of that.

"Whether I have got one or 110 caps, I have played for the biggest, most branded side in the world.

"I have played for England, played in the Premier League, won a major trophy with Middlesbrough, scored at Old Trafford, scored at Liverpool. That's stuff you dream of as a kid.

"You visualise that but you don't really expect to get there. I have lived the dream. As a body of work I am proud of what I have achieved. If you speak to most people who know me they will tell you about who I played for.

"Leeds: a massive club; Middlesbrough: won their first trophy: Bolton: helped them stay in the Premier League and establish themselves.

"I played for England, have gone for big money, worked under Steve McClaren and Sam Allardyce and some very, very good coaches. It's not a bad career, is it?"

Indeed it is not. It certainly beats my Shropshire County Cup runner's up medal with Orleton Park Under 16s, but my only regret is telescopic legs without the lenses to guide them.

At 6ft 2ins, with immense power and decent pace Ricketts' raw materials are somewhat richer.

Yet since his appearance at the Amsterdam Arena he has scored just 23 goals in six seasons, an average of fewer than four a year.

Where he was once in the Premiership he is now on loan from one League One side to another. Where did it all go wrong?

Ricketts maintains it didn't: "I have learned lessons but I wouldn't change anything because I have experienced great things.

"A lot of people will talk about it but I have actually experienced them [2014] more than most people will ever get their head around. I wouldn't change it for the world.

"I am still in football, there are a lot of people who float in and out. I have still got a job, family and nice things. I just accept that.

"Football is a big thing in my life but it is not the most important thing - my family is. If you speak to anyone they'll tell you that's the most important thing in life."

And in that respect at least Michael Ricketts is exactly like most people.