Izzy Brown has still not been paid a penny by Leeds United. Not because the Championship club have reneged on their agreement, but because Chelsea, football’s supposed loan sharks, have been funding the striker’s return to fitness.

It was back in January that Brown, who had been working his way up the Chelsea loan ladder, suffered a cruciate ligament injury while playing for Brighton that not only ended his season, but also finished his first spell at a Premier League club.

Before then, Brown had started his loan life at Vitesse Arnhem, where so many of Chelsea’s youngsters are sent, and graduated to Rotherham United and then Huddersfield Town, the team he helped to promotion out of the Championship.

Having joined Chelsea as a 16-year-old from West Bromwich Albion in 2013, critics will argue that Brown would have been playing for his parent club if he had stayed at the Hawthorns.

But he had already made 81 senior first-team appearances over the course of his Chelsea loans ahead of his 21st birthday, which he celebrated the day before suffering the knee injury in Brighton’s FA Cup victory over Crystal Palace.

Returning to Chelsea for surgery and rehabilitation, Brown spent six months back at the club’s Cobham training centre, where he was largely looked after by ‘loan technical coach’ Eddie Newton – rated as the best in the business.