Captaincy would be an honour, says Henderson

it was a huge honour,” he said. “There’s a lot of lads in the team that have done it and can do it so it’s totally down to the manager.”

He added: “As a team, we want get to the World Cup, first and foremost, and then we want to do well.

“We have spoken together as a squad and the target is to be the No 1 team in the world,” had come earlier than expected, after a summer in which he won the last of his 40 Under-21s caps at the European Championship. He is in the squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Malta on Friday and Slovakia three days later.

Chalobah says that he left Chelsea on good terms with the club and also with Conte. He talked about the prestige of being at Chelsea and how that influences the decisions of young players, including, presumably, his younger brother Trevoh, 18, also an England junior international and still at the club. Nathaniel has 97 youth caps for England. Born in Sierra Leone, but choosing to play for England, his international career has been as important to him as his club career.

“It’s a tough place Chelsea, top club, and I think that sometimes you can get a bit carried away with being there,” Chalobah said. “You are on the brink, on the brink, almost there, and it’s very hard when you have got established players who come in and they have got the experience already.

“I think you have to really look deep into yourself and see what makes you happy. The problem was that I wanted to play, after getting a taste of it last year. I needed to go out and try to do better things for myself. So, yeah, I think you really have to be brave.”

Chalobah, Kieran Trippier, Phil Jones and Jake Livermore all missed yesterday evening’s training but are expected to be available for the Malta qualifier. Jordan Pickford was sent home earlier for treatment on an injury.