HE didn’t know it at the time, but when Kieran Trippier shook hands with Ben Stokes at England’s Rockliffe Park base earlier this week, it was one England captain meeting another.

Stokes, of course, is England’s Test skipper, and was the talisman of his side’s dramatic success at the 2019 World Cup. Trippier is yet to wear the England armband, with Harry Kane firmly established as Gareth Southgate’s chosen leader.

With Kane sitting out this evening’s friendly against Bosnia & Herzegovina at St James’ Park though, Trippier will lead out his country at the home of his club. And, to make the moment even more special, the Newcastle United full-back will be accompanied by his son, Jacob, who will be one of the matchday mascots.

Earlier this season, Jacob was handed Kylian Mbappe’s shirt after Newcastle thrashed Paris St Germain in the group stages of the Champions League. It might have been a somewhat mixed season for Trippier, with injury issues and a loss of form needing to be overcome, but it has undoubtedly been a sensational one for his son.

“He’s had a good season, hasn’t he,” said Trippier. “The people at England asked me if my son wanted to be mascot, and I was absolutely delighted. I just said, ‘I hope I’m playing’. I’m just so proud. My son’s walked out many times at St James’ with me, but for him to walk out while I’m leading out my country is going to be something that I’ll never forget.”

Trippier also regards this week’s sit-down with Stokes as a memorable experience, with the England and Durham all-rounder having chatted to the whole of the squad about the ups and downs of leading his country.

Throughout his reign as England boss, Southgate has been open to the idea of branching out from football to take inspiration from other sports, and Stokes’ visit was a key part of preparations for the Euros in Germany, which begin at the end of next week.

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“Ben came in and talked about the ups and downs in his career, and the challenges he’s had to face,” said Trippier. “We can relate that to the challenges we’ve had to face as well – going into tournaments, the setbacks we’ve had that he’s had. After he spoke to us, we all took so much from it.

“It was stuff about leadership, and the ups and downs and how you deal with them. I think it’s really important that we can look at his path and his journey, and all the ups and downs of the England cricket team, and relate that to ourselves.

“I know he’s a cricketer and we’re footballers, but the challenges he faces in pressure moments is similar to what we have to go through. I don’t know a lot about cricket, but he was talking about the Super Over (in the World Cup final) and saying that it doesn’t really happen, so they can’t really practice for that. That was a challenge he had to face, and it’s similar for us with penalty shootouts or extra-time, and the challenges and setbacks that we have to overcome. We certainly took a lot from that, and we’ll talk about it a lot as a group.”

Bazball was also discussed, with Stokes’ Test side having adopted a fearless, attacking approach that has tended to pay dividends over the last few years.

Given that Southgate has been accused of being overly conservative for much of his England reign, can we really expect the nation’s footballers to adopt their own version of Bazball in Germany this summer?

“Their approach is exactly the same as what we want to do,” said Trippier. “We want to attack every tournament and attack every single game, similar to the cricket. There were some incredible stories about the setbacks he had, and all we can do is relate that to ourselves. And if you’re talking about attacking it, then that’s certainly something we want to do in this Euros coming up.”

And just as England’s cricketers ended a lengthy wait for silverware by lifting the 50-overs World Cup in 2019, so Trippier is confident he and his team-mates can finally add a second major trophy to England’s list of footballing honours this summer.

“To win something for my country would be an absolute dream,” said the full-back, who scored England’s goal in their World Cup semi-final defeat to Croatia in 2018. “But first, we have to earn the right to do that.

“We won’t shy away from saying that we can win it, and we don’t mean that in an arrogant way. Of course, I’d love to win something with my country, and that’s our goal, it has been since I played in my first tournament in 2018. It’s something that we’ve wanted to do. We’ve been very close, and hopefully this summer, we can go one step further.”