FOR most of the last two months, being an English right-back has felt akin to being an endangered species.

First, it was Kyle Walker suffering a groin injury in Manchester City’s derby win over Manchester United. Then, it was Reece James succumbing to the knee injury that ultimately resulted in him failing to make the World Cup squad. Even fringe options such as Kyle Walker-Peters and James Justin have fallen victim to the right-back injury curse.

With Trent Alexander-Arnold’s form having fallen off a cliff this season – not that Gareth Southgate was a huge fan of the Liverpool full-back anyway – it was starting to feel as though England’s strongest position for the last two or three tournament cycles was about to become a major weakness in Qatar. Thank goodness, then, for Kieran Trippier.

As the defensive spearhead of Newcastle United’s remarkable rise up the Premier League table in the last couple of months, Trippier has not just become an icon on Tyneside. He has also established himself as one of the key members of Southgate’s first-choice starting side.

As Alan Shearer, another black-and-white talisman, put it so neatly on Match of the Day a couple of weekends back, it is no longer a question of whether Trippier will be in the starting line-up for England’s opening group game against Iran on Monday, it is simply a matter of where he will play.

Equally as effective at right-back in a back four or right wing-back in a five, Trippier has also slotted in at left-back under Southgate in the last couple of seasons. He played on the left for England’s opening match of Euro 2020 – a 1-0 win over Croatia – but was back at right wing-back for the final against Italy, when he set up Luke Shaw’s opening goal.

He returned to the left for this summer’s Nations League matches against Germany and Italy, but for all that Ben Chilwell’s injury situation might have plunged England’s left-back situation into a state of uncertainty, Trippier’s performances in the Premier League this season have surely made a compelling case for keeping him on the right in the World Cup.

Whereas Alexander-Arnold and James are much better attackers than defenders, and the opposite is true of Walker, hence his comfort playing as a centre-half in a back five, Trippier is by far the most balanced of England’s right-back options.

He is an excellent defender – tough, committed and a fine reader of the game – and is a major reason why Newcastle currently boast the best defensive record in the top-flight. However, as devotees of Fantasy Football will confirm, he is also a hugely-effective attacking asset, setting up goals with his crosses and set-pieces and weighing in with goals of his own from free-kicks.

He is a natural leader, and just as Eddie Howe has identified his signing from Atletico Madrid as a key moment in Newcastle’s development, so Southgate has increasingly come to value the 32-year-old’s impact as both a squad member in the dressing room and lieutenant on the pitch.

“If you look at Kieran’s performances this year, then he’s been incredible,” said Howe, shortly before the Premier League programme shut down for the World Cup. “Even last (season), in the brief time he played, he made a massive impact, both on the pitch and off it, in terms of his leadership.

“He has continued to do the same. If you look at some of the crosses he puts in, then it’s hard to overstate just how difficult a skill it is to deliver the ball how he does. It demands real technical quality. Then his defending is also of an extremely good level. I can’t speak highly enough of him.

“It wasn’t necessarily our intention to make our first signing a ‘statement signing’, but it was certainly a good thing it was Kieran.”

Now, it is England’s turn to benefit from Trippier’s talents. Once the source of an abundance of riches, then briefly a position that appeared to be hexed, England’s right-back role now looks to be securely sewn up. Having scored in a World Cup semi-final during his time as a Tottenham player, Trippier will attempt to go one step further as Newcastle’s leading English light.