THERE WERE VERY DARK DAYS, SAYS FORSTER

CONSIDERING it has just gone 8am when Fraser Forster is set up in front of Zoom to speak to Sportsmail, he is in especially good spirits. ‘I’ve just had to do an FA Cup quiz and I was like, “I don’t even know what time it is, let alone these answers”,’ he laughs. The Forster smile is genuine now, having transformed his fortunes at Southampton, and being back out on the Wembley pitch will bring the 33-year-old full circle after some ‘very dark, horrendously hard days’. The last time he played there was when things began to unravel.

Southampton lost 5-2 against Tottenham on Boxing Day, 2017 and Forster did not play again for then manager Mauricio Pellegrino or at all for his successor Mark Hughes, who signed Angus Gunn to push him further down the pecking order. Forster (right) then played only once in Ralph Hasenhuttl’s first two years, spending last season on loan at Celtic before coming in from the cold to face Liverpool in January. ‘It’s been a bit of a journey,’ says Forster. ‘I’d just signed a fiveyear deal, six months later you’re out of the team, then a year later you’re not even making squads, so it is very tough. Managers pick the team and if you’re not their cup of tea as a keeper it’s hard to get back.’ Did he get feedback from Pellegrino? ‘Not really,’ says Forster. Whenever he bumped into fans, they would wonder how a £10million England keeper whose 13-save display for Celtic against Barcelona in 2012 saw him nicknamed La Gran Muralla — The Great Wall — and hailed by Lionel Messi as ‘not human’ in ‘the best goalkeeping performance I’ve ever seen’ could not get a game. ‘People have asked me but it’s hard to explain,’ he says. ‘You’re searching for answers yourself. I always work hard to prove people wrong — when you’re in that situation, that’s your inspiration.’ Back in the fold with Hasenhuttl, Forster adds: ‘I didn’t take it for granted but I’d been a No 1 for the previous 10 years. Now you think how far you’ve had to come so just be happy to play, have fun. It gives you appreciation of how fortunate you are. That and the whole last year for everyone in the country. Footballers have been so fortunate. We’ve been able to keep training, keep playing.’