When Josh Dasilva failed to see a pathway for himself at Arsenal, after 12 years working his way through the Gunners’ academy, he turned down a new contract at Emirates Stadium and joined Brentford as a 19-year-old, signing a four-year contract in August 2018.

Though it took him a little while to fully illustrate his talents to the Brentford fans on a regular basis, he showed what was to come with the first of what would become his trademark, unstoppable curling effort with his wand of a left boot in a 1-1 draw at Millwall in April 2019.

The next season was simply brilliant for the midfielder. He was an important cog in the midfield, playing all but four games in the Championship, and contributed 10 goals towards the promotion effort, which was, sadly, futile in the end. Early on in the 2020/21 season, he signed a well-deserved new four-year contract.

He was missing from the team for the best part of a year from March 2021 with a perplexing hip injury. “My understanding of it now is that my hip bone was swollen,” Dasilva explained in the Long Read. “I took a shot in training and, because it was swollen, the bones banged together and I felt something.

“I was probably playing the best football I’ve played consistently for a while. I was taking painkillers to play through the pain, but we went to see a few specialists and they just said: ‘If you don't stop then you could shatter your hip and your career’s done.’”

Freshly recovered and with a full pre-season under his belt, Dasilva featured in 36 of Brentford’s 38 Premier League games in 2022/23. Thomas Frank spoke about his goal against Leicester City on the opening day afterwards: “I almost got emotional just thinking about it. He’s been out for 18 months; almost a year then a setback and another setback.”

Heartbreakingly, the misfortune did not end there. He injured his hamstring in his first game of 2023/24, which kept him out for four months, then, after just four further appearances, suffered an ACL rupture in training in February 2024.

The club handed him a new one-year contract in the summer of 2024, with the option to extend it by a further 12 months.