The story goes that the teenaged Lucas Torreira was so desperate to impress on his arrival in Europe, so determined to make a success of himself in this foreign land, that he played for months in Italy with agonising, debilitating blisters and warts all over his feet.

In Torreira’s words, the pain was there for a “long time”. He was trialling with a small group of fellow Uruguayans at Pescara, in Italy’s second division, and the prospect of failing and returning home to South America was not something he was willing to accept.

“I had these warts on my feet,” he says, thinking back. “I could not train properly and my boots would hurt, but at no point did I hold up my hand and say I was in pain. It was an opportunity to change my life, and change the lives of my family, and really make a name for myself. It went on for a long time, the pain.”

Eventually, someone at the club noticed and Torreira was given the treatment he so obviously needed. After that, it did not take long for the midfielder to thrive. A season later, he had been signed by Sampdoria, who were then the seventh best side in Italy, as his journey towards Arsenal and Wednesday’s Europa League final gained momentum at a startling rate.