In the last months and weeks of the life of little Jack Marshall, a teenage footballer provided some comfort to the dying boy and his anguished parents. Jack Wilshere was barely more than a boy himself in 2011 but he acted with the kind of maturity and compassion that is beyond most people, whatever their age.

Jack, who was six when he died that autumn, had been stricken by a brain tumour when Wilshere was made aware of his plight by the boy’s mother. Other footballers such as Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand had been kind to the kid, an irrepressibly cheerful, football-mad child, and Wilshere wanted to do anything he could to ease the family’s pain.

He invited them down to London, had them round to his house for a barbeque and took them to a match at The Emirates. It is not easy to be around that kind of grief and illness. Many people would have stopped there. Wilshere chose not to. He was a regular visitor to the Marshall’s home in Scunthorpe. He did much to help publicise their campaign to raise awareness of Jack’s disease.

Jack Wilshere plays pool at his home in Hertfordshire as he gives an exclusive interview to Mail on Sunday

The England midfielder watches on after taking a shot during a game with Mail on Sunday's Oliver Holt

Wilshere has endured another season beset by injury and started his first game for six months this week

Wilshere holds the hand of Jack Marshall, who sadly passed away in October 2011 due to a brain tumour

The Arsenal academy graduate poses with his two young children Archie, three, and Delilah, one

The 23-year-old attempts to tackle Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain during Arsenal training on Saturday

Once, when little Jack’s elder brother, Josh, was being bullied by kids at his school, Wilshere travelled north to help him too. He made a point of going down to the local park to kick a football about with Josh so the bullies could see the boy was a mate of an England player.

And when little Jack died in October 2011, Wilshere and his family stood with the rest of the 200 mourners at the Woodlands Crematorium on the outskirts of Scunthorpe and listened to the elegies. ‘What a boy he was,’ Wilshere wrote on Twitter that night. ‘RIP my little friend. You’ll be missed.’

Much has changed in the intervening years. Wilshere is 23 now and a doting father to two children of his own. When you walk through the front door of his house in an affluent Hertfordshire suburb, the first thing you see is a sturdy security gate at the foot of the stairs to stop his kids, Archie, three, and Delilah, who will be two in September, clambering into danger. In another room, a giant toy box with their names printed on the side rests against a wall.

The midfielder has played at a World Cup too and his sparkling talent, quick feet, close control, passing ability, bursts forward and vision mean he remains one of the great hopes of England’s future and a favourite of national team boss Roy Hodgson, even though injuries have blighted his progress.

Wilshere has only just returned to action following a six-month lay off with an ankle injury

Wilshere badly twisted his ankle after a late challenge by Manchester United's Paddy McNair last November

Wilshere holds his face in pain after the challenge that left him requiring surgery

Wilshere gives the thumbs-up from his hospital bed after the surgery on his injured ankle last year

A late tackle by Manchester United’s Paddy McNair last November damaged his ankle and ruined a bright start to the season. There is speculation that Arsene Wenger will sell him in the summer but he made his first start for Arsenal for six months against Sunderland on Wednesday and is fighting for a place in the first XI for the FA Cup final against Aston Villa next Saturday.

‘I have grown up so much in the last three or four years,’ says Wilshere. ‘I was 19 when I had Archie. People said, “You are never ready for your first kid” but for a 19-year-old to have a child is quite a big thing. I was going to football every day and not worrying about anything and then all of a sudden, I have a little boy to worry about.

‘It makes you grow up a lot. When I was 19, I was living with my parents, just getting on with my life. Then all of a sudden, I had to worry about this kid. Then their mother and I split up and my life changed a lot. We have a good arrangement about how much access I get. When I have my kids, it’s the best time of the week.’

The difference between perception and reality is often a recurring theme in the lives of modern footballers and Wilshere is a prime example. He has been portrayed as a feckless, flighty young man, a denizen of nightclubs and pool parties. He has been lambasted for smoking on holiday and, more recently, for being photographed holding a shisha pipe.

But the reality is that Wilshere is older than his years. He always has been. His father, Andy, is a serious, intense, thoughtful man and Wilshere is no different. That may be at odds with his public image but his public image is misleading.

He has the trappings of a Premier League footballer’s life: a lovely house, a boys’ room upstairs with a pool table and shirts once worn by some of the world’s leading players on his wall. He has a couple of nice cars in the drive too, but he is not flash. He is not an ebullient character. He does not chatter. He is not averse to one-word answers. He makes a questioner work. He chooses his words carefully but there is often a certain lyricism to them.

Wilshere says that he expects to be at Arsenal next season despite speculation linking him with exit

Wilshere admits it would hurt if Arsenal, the club he has been at since aged nine, wanted to sell him

Wilshere chalks his cue in his games room that is littered with shirts worn by current and former players

The England international, pictured lining up a shot, says he wants to feel wanted by Arsenal

So when he is asked about the rumours that he will sign for Manchester City this summer, that he will be offloaded by Wenger, that he has become surplus to requirements in a midfield that already boasts Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez, Wilshere does not shirk the question.

Does he expect to be at Arsenal on the opening day of next season? He thinks for a beat. ‘Yeah,’ he says. There is no chance of him taking the route that Raheem Sterling appears to have chosen at Liverpool, by agitating for a move. Wilshere’s own circumstances are different. He feels wedded to the club. He has been at Arsenal since he was nine. ‘I would be hurt if they sold me,’ he says. ‘I want Arsenal to want me. So if they didn’t want me, it would hurt. It would be strange playing for another club. I went to Bolton on loan and that was strange.

‘I feel like I’m ready to play now and that’s not going to change. I want to play more minutes before the end of the season and then I’ll have to wait until next season and see what the boss’s plans are for me, for the team.

Wilshere says there is no holding back between him and Arsene Wenger, who will always be truthful with him

Wilshere says that Arsenal manager Wenger has not approached him regarding his future

Wilshere poses with Calum Chambers, Danny Welbeck, and Oxlade-Chamberlain at a charity event this week

‘I want to play first-team football. I want to play in the Premier League, the Champions League and I want to continue playing for England. If I’m going to do that, I have to play for my club and put in good performances for my club because there are other English midfielders who are doing that in the Premier League.

‘You can’t stop the speculation or do anything about it. I have not spoken to the boss about it at all. He has not mentioned it to me. I’ve not mentioned anything to him. At the moment, I need to get back in the team. The speculation about my future started when I was injured. You just want to get back out there and get back to what you love doing and just concentrate on that.’

Wilshere speaks in glowing terms about Ozil. He loves watching him play, loves the way he always seems to stay cool under pressure. ‘Even when there are loads of players around him, you watch him and he has got his head up and he is looking around,’ says Wilshere. He is optimistic too that next season Arsenal will step up their title challenge.

Wilshere looked in relaxed mood during training on Saturday ahead of Arsenal's final league game this season

The Arsenal No 10 closes down team-mate Serge Gnabry during training ahead of West Brom clash on Sunday

‘A big thing with us over the past few seasons was that, mentally, when we were going into games with the big teams, did we really believe that we could win them? Or even stand a chance? And this season, there has been a big difference,’ he says. ‘I don’t know if it’s the players we’ve added or the group has been together now for a while plus there have been a couple of world-class players added. We are growing up and understanding the Premier League a bit more and in those big games we have come a long way.’

And Wilshere believes his relationship with Wenger is strong and getting stronger. ‘My first coaching session with him was when I was 14,’ says Wilshere. ‘We have known each other for a long time. I know he’s one of the only people that I can go to and ask how I’m playing and he’ll be honest with me.

‘There’s no holding back between us. We are honest with each other. We can have an open discussion about where I want to play. I think he has the same trust in me as always. That trust has to be earned.’

Wilshere pictured in action against Sunderland on Wednesday night, his first start for six months

Wilshere says he feels fit and ready to play after such a long time out through injury

Wilshere tumbles over Sunderland goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon as the Romanian makes a save

The Arsenal boss was not happy about the picture of Wilshere taking a drag of a cigarette while he was on holiday in Las Vegas but there is also an acceptance at the club that the 23-year-old is not a smoker.

Wilshere says: ‘I can take the publicity. I have learned to deal with it. It wasn’t the first time I have been in the paper for doing something that I shouldn’t. I have learned to let the football do the talking — but it’s more difficult for my family.

‘Being photographed smoking is not the worst thing in the world but, as a professional athlete and as someone who young kids look up to, it is not the right thing to do.

‘Some of the pictures of footballers that come out, it looks like they have been taken by their friends. I have lost quite a lot of people over trust issues in the last seven years. I have only got now four or five friends that I would count as real friends. You get paranoid. You have to trust the people you are around. My family and my brother and a couple of close friends. You have to pick who you hang around with and who you have close to you.’

HOW I POCKETED EASY VICTORY Jack Wilshere has been working way too hard on getting back to full fitness to have any time left for pool so I sensed my chance when I persuaded him into a match at his house last week (Holt with Wilshere, left). I won on the eight-ball but I haven’t got much to boast about. Put it this way: it wasn’t a quick game. Arsenal fan Ian Poulter is still the best sportsman I’ve played. I had two games with him and only got one chance at a pot — which I missed. Advertisement

Wilshere poses with team-mates at the Arsenal Foundation's charity fundraiser on Thursday night

Wilshere says he loves playing with Germany international Mesut Ozil, who Arsenal signed for £42.5million

Wilshere is confident his injury problems are behind him. He sustained a stress fracture of the ankle when his body was still growing but subsequent issues have been caused by bad tackles from Daniel Agger and McNair. There are no underlying weaknesses for him to worry about.

‘I have read that I need to change the way I play, not run with it as much,’ he says. ‘But then I wouldn’t be the player I am so I can’t do that. When I was younger and I was out for eight or nine months with my first injury, I used to think, “Will I get back to the same level, will I come back the same player?”. Once you have been through it and you realise you can come back with hard work, it’s much better.’

Whatever his future holds, it feels as if Wilshere stands at the cusp of his career now, ready to embrace it, ready to watch it flourish. His body is past its growing pains. His mind is able to put things in perspective. When he is asked what he is most proud of, he does not hesitate. ‘My kids,’ he says. ‘When I was about 17 or 18, I could never see anything being more important than football.