JUST as Adam Johnson started to pack his bags for a close-season holiday with friends to Las Vegas, Jordan Henderson had handed over his passport to the Football Association and began preparing for Euro 2012.

Neither of the North-East hopefuls on Roy Hodgson's stand by list had been expecting to be boarding the plane to Warsaw when the official squad was announced after being initially overlooked.

But the thigh injury picked up by Frank Lampard changed all of that.

There was, following the withdrawal of Gareth Barry and the call-up of Phil Jagielka, a further change to England's roster for the European Championships.

This time, rather than think about what might have been, Henderson's dream came true. It might have been hard for many fans to accept it after a frustrating first season at Liverpool, but the youngman from Sunderland had been handed his ticket to the Euros.

Forming part of Hodgson's squad is a positive end to a topsy-turvy 12 months. It all started with a £20m move away from his hometown club, Sunderland.

In between times he has had to try to convince Liverpool supporters that he was worthy of such an inflated price-tag, while being unable to hold down a starting role in his preferred position for a sustained period.

He was played on the right, centrally and at the hub of the midfield selected by Kenny Dalglish. Sometimes he was effective, other occasions he was poor. Overall the general feeling is of more to come.

In the end he finished the season with his first winner's medal, after helping to defeat Cardiff City in the Carling Cup final atWembley. It also ended in the disappointment after he - and the rest of the squad - had been unable to keep Dalglish in a job.

Over the course of the next few weeks, however, Henderson has an opportunity to enhance a reputation that has taken something of a battering during his first season on Merseyside.

His elevation to replace the injured Lampard has ensured he will now be trusted to provide the backup to England's ambitions in Poland and Ukraine.

If anything happens to Scott Parker, Steven Gerrard or James Milner in the coming days, Henderson will find himself thrust further into the national spotlight.

He's a very unassuming talent. It was only back in February, days after the Carling Cup success, that Henderson stood in the main reception at the Riverside Stadium.

The England Under-21 skipper was displaying the reserved nature he was renowned for at Sunderland.

Behind his shy exterior the former Farringdon Community Sports College pupil is hungry to prove his critics wrong.

He might publicly state he is not affected by what goes on around him, but privately he is desperate to succeed.

"It was good to win a trophy inmy first year, " he said. "I always knew I made the right decision as soon as I went to Liverpool and that never changed.

"But, obviously, winning the first trophy in my first year is an unbelievable achievement for everyone involved.

"It will give us confidence to go on to achieve better things."

Whether that is true at Anfield remains to be seen. In the aftermath of the Carling Cup success, Liverpool dropped to an eighth place finish in the Premier League, lost the FA Cup final and then lost their manager.

This summer will be about how Brendan Rodgers changes things at club level, but Henderson has other things on his mind for now: How to supply England's forward-line if Hodgson calls for him to help make England tick, for one.

While Johnson has had to end the club campaign disappointed, it does mean all three of Liverpool's bigmoney North-East buys will have a part to play at Euro 2012.

Plenty have apportioned much of the blame for Dalglish's sacking on the three players that amounted to £75m of his spending spree last year.

Yet the presence of Henderson, Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing in Hodgson's squad also suggests Dalglish was not alone in thinking they all possess class.

During his two seasons as a first team regular at Sunderland under Steve Bruce, Henderson's strong running and routine passing meant he was an outstanding performer in the statistical charts.

Now he must prove he has the complete midfield performance to go with all of the football analysis which exists in the modern game.

If he can do that, this summer could be a period of his career when he rams the words of his critics down their throats.