Phil Foden must respond in the right way to unexpected Man City challenge

Phil Foden's career has been on an upwards curve but there will be fresh scrutiny on the Manchester City midfielder now

Phil Foden has endured the worst week of his promising football career without kicking a ball competitively.

What should have been a consolidation of his biggest achievement to date - a debut with the England national team - instead became a horror show that has undone some of his recent hard work.

Monday morning's revelation that he and Manchester United's Mason Greenwood had broken Covid protocols by inviting two women back to the team hotel looked bad, and every new detail made the Manchester City youngster come out from the story even worse.

If it leaves his immediate future with England is uncertain - with Gareth Southgate increasingly critical and time before the European Championships limited - but he is unlikely to suffer further with his club.

City slammed him in an official statement, but are also keen not to vilify him and Kyle Walker did not suffer in Pep Guardiola's team selections after his similarly indefensible actions during lockdown.

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What will change for Foden though is how he is perceived. The 20-year-old has always been held up as a model professional. That is in no small part because he has been but the potential of a player seen as one of England's most talented prospects have seen him regularly championed, with any lack of game time bracketed as a problem of Guardiola or Southgate.

Foden's poor decision-making in Iceland will place a fresh scrutiny of his actions on the pitch this season. Already, there have been attempts to revise his England debut as less of an average performance in an average midfield in pre-season and more of the uninterested display of somebody not fully focused on the cause.

As far as City are concerned Foden will already have proven himself if he makes the starting XI for a game because Guardiola will not select a player he does not believe is 100 per cent committed, and there was already enough talented players in the squad to feature instead even before Ferran Torres was brought in.

It is still expected to be a significant year for the player whose standout performances after lockdown convinced his manager to pick him in high-profile games with Liverpool and Real Madrid, yet outside the club there will be fewer willing to give Foden a break after his poor decision with the national team.

Having worked so hard to convince Guardiola and his coaching staff that he was ready to play at the highest level, Foden must now put extra effort in so that the conversation around him returns to his football and he starts being back-page news rather than making the front of papers.

It wasn't expected, it shouldn't have been necessary, but at least the solution is straightforward.