The world was sitting at Levi Colwill's feet. Literally, in a sense. The Club World Cup trophy was on the floor in front of him, and Chelsea's central defender was crouching down, posing for a picture with an England flag draped over his shoulders. Then it happened.

The ACL – three letters that no footballer ever wishes to hear because the anterior cruciate ligament is immediately associated with seasons ending.

It is only because Colwill’s injury occurred so long ago – on the first day of pre-season training at Cobham, three weeks after beating Paris Saint-Germain to become a world champion last summer – that he has returned in time to try to help Chelsea lift another trophy in the FA Cup.

That is good for his club, and, potentially, for his country. We are told Thomas Tuchel is set to attend this final between Chelsea and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium and, while he will have his pick of Englishmen to pore over, particular attention should be paid to Colwill.

Tuchel had to submit a 55-man squad to FIFA by midnight on Monday this week. It is only provisional, but it is from this pool that he will select his final 26 players to represent England at the World Cup. The FA have not announced who was chosen, but Daily Mail Sport can reveal Colwill is among those initially included in Tuchel’s long list of 55.

That news alone – confirmation that Tuchel is continuing to consider him – will have acted as a confidence booster for the 23-year-old after a long, occasionally lonely, comeback.

They love Colwill around Chelsea. More than once, they have had to inform rival clubs that he is not for sale, including Bayern Munich. It is also believed Colwill and Chelsea have been in talks regarding his contract, with Reece James and Moises Caicedo among those recently tied down to new deals which will take them into the 2030s. Colwill is contracted until 2029 currently, and the club have the option to trigger an extra 12 months.

It is not only because of what Colwill brings on the field, but his leadership away from it. While sidelined, sources within Chelsea say he personally volunteered to help his club with community work, such as attending a Christmas lunch for local charities at Stamford Bridge. He has been with the club since he was eight years old, so is Cobham through and through.

When Calum McFarlane was installed as interim in January after Enzo Maresca’s exit on New Year’s Day, Colwill also asked whether he could accompany the squad for their 1-1 draw away at Manchester City, to help the caretaker coaches try to maintain high morale. It was in January when Colwill returned to modified training for his club. They upped it in February, and upped it again in March, and it was at the beginning of April when he came back into full training.

That same month, he played 60 minutes for Chelsea’s Under 21s in a behind-closed-doors fixture against Liberia’s Under 20s national team, then a full 90 for the Under 21s in a Premier League 2 win over Middlesbrough. Two of Chelsea’s five sporting directors, Paul Winstanley and Sam Jewell, were there to watch him captain the youngsters in that second fixture.

Coming through those matches unscathed convinced Chelsea he was ready for a May return to playing in the Premier League. His half-time introduction in a 3-1 loss to Nottingham Forest marked his first appearance of the season for the senior side, more than nine months on from his last.

He followed that up last week by completing the entirety of a 1-1 draw away at Liverpool, being described by McFarlane as the best player on the pitch. Even Wesley Fofana, whose form has faltered for too long, looked immediately better with his left-sided partner by his side. And now, to Wembley. It is a big opportunity for Colwill, facing City, with Erling Haaland his opponent, in front of Tuchel, less than a week before 55 is trimmed to 26.

It is tough to say where Chelsea would be had Colwill not injured his ACL. Higher than ninth in the Premier League, presumably. Sources inside Cobham do say they believe his absence is one reason why they have failed to live up to their moniker of world champions.

Colwill is that important to his club – so important that when searching for the beginning of the end of Maresca’s time in charge, we might even find it on August 4, 2025, the day that this defender damaged his ACL. Certainly the timeline tells a story of how highly he was rated by Maresca and the tension which was brewing between the head coach and his hierarchy at the time.

August 7 – Maresca revealed at his morning press conference how Colwill had picked up a problem, and it was in an answer to a question he had been asked on how many more signings he would like to make that month. By the afternoon, Chelsea had confirmed it was his ACL.

August 15 – Maresca doubled down, explaining Colwill’s crucial role in Chelsea’s build-up exactly, namely as the central player in a 3-2-5 set-up when the team had possession. He even cited how Fofana tried to play 45 minutes in his specific position away at Bournemouth and that it was ‘probably one of the worst halves’ he had seen since taking charge. He added Benoit Badiashile tried the same in the Conference League final when they were losing 1-0 to Real Betis at half-time, then ‘we changed with Levi and won 4-1’.

August 21 – Daily Mail Sport arrived a little early at Cobham and bumped into Maresca pulling up in his Mercedes-Benz people carrier. His young son hopped out of the car with him. ‘New signing?’ we asked. ‘Yes! It’s my new centre back!’ Maresca replied.

Of course, Chelsea never signed a replacement for Colwill, which disappointed Maresca, and his successor Liam Rosenior never got to use him at all. But now he is back, with McFarlane hoping he can help them lift the FA Cup trophy and leave Tuchel with a decision to make.