Lallana believes that he will have to come back an even stronger player than he was before injuries took almost two years out of his career

Dinner was about to be served at Liverpool’s training camp in Marbella and, as Adam Lallana walked into the room, a familiar voice chirped up.

“Here’s Busquets,” quipped Jordan Henderson deadpan, before breaking into a smile. The joke carried a compliment of the highest order.

Earlier that afternoon, with the countdown to the Champions League final under way, Lallana had been deployed in a deeper-lying role than normal with responsibility to orchestrate those around him.

Validation of how Lallana had performed — the astuteness of his first-time passing and availability to receive possession — came in that joke from Henderson.

The unlikely comparison between Lallana and Barcelona’s pre-eminent defensive midfielder, Sergio Busquets, would never have materialised were it not for a moment, three months earlier,