Having made his debut for the Three Lions against Sweden in 2012, it was over a year before he returned to the senior fold – his next match was in March this year as England beat Denmark at Wembley.
During his break from the senior squad, the Liverpool forward played for the Under-21s and even netted in a 6-0 victory over Scotland in August 2013, with Roy Hodgson standing in as manager for the game.
He played against Peru and Ecuador in the build-up to the World Cup, but a red-card against the Ecuadorians meant he was suspended for the final warm-up game in Miami against Honduras.
But it was at the main event in Brazil where he really came to the fore and it was easy to forget just how young he was – 19 - when he provided England with a real threat in attack.
He almost scored in early stages of the opening group game against Italy and caused their defence all manner of headaches on the night.
And though England were eliminated from the World Cup after just two games, Sterling gave the fans plenty to be hopeful about in the future.
Now with 13 games to his name, the former QPR youth-teamer played in all six victories this campaign, and provided the spark for four of England’s goals.
His trickery drew fouls which led to a match-winning penalty against Norway and a match-winning free-kick against Estonia. Sterling also got assists for Danny Welbeck goals against Switzerland and Slovenia.
One thing he’ll no doubt be after in 2015 is his first England goal, and after netting five so far for Liverpool this season, one for his country is surely not far away.
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