Wes, a right-back or central defender, would surely have accumulated many more England senior caps if his career hadn’t been so blighted by injury. He made his debut under Kevin Keegan when he was 19, starting the Budapest friendly against Hungary on 28 April 1999. But he didn’t make his 20th appearance until starting a FIFA World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan in October 2008.
He was a pupil at The FA National School at Lilleshall and had represented England at Schoolboy, Youth and Under-21 levels but missed out on four major tournaments with the senior team. Wes made his first two Premier League appearances for Manchester United in the 1997-98 season and had to wait until 2007-08, when he scored once in 36 games, to be something like an ever-present in the Premier League.
This classy member of United’s backline has still picked up his fair share of winners’ medals, and they include five in the Premier League, two in The FA Cup and two in the Champions League. For England he came back into Fabio Capello’s side, after a break of more than a year, to start the friendly with Brazil in Doha in November 2009.
