“My granddad had a stroke two or three months ago. I knocked on his door and said: ‘I need to go to Sheffield to see my granddad.’ He said, ‘Never mind about the double session. Family’s more important. Go and see your granddad.’ To me, that said everything about the man that he is.” Happily, Walker’s granddad recovered.

And so, here we are now: four games to go, and two of the unlikeliest challengers in living memory. Surely a second-place finish – their best in 53 years – would be a decent result?

“If you’d said to me at the start of the season that we’d finish second, I’d have said thanks,” he says. “But with how the season’s gone? You have to give full credit to Leicester, they’re there for a reason. But there are still a lot of minutes to be played. I hope it goes down to the wire. I just hope we can keep going for these last four games, and we’ll see where it goes.”

Whatever happens in those four games, Walker’s personal redemption is complete. His career is on the rise again. He has Euro 2016 this summer, a first Champions League campaign to look forward to next season, a dressing room that feels like a second family.