Danny Welbeck spent enough time cooped up through injury that talk of boredom setting in at Englandâs remote World Cup base is immediately laughed off.
The Three Lions head to Russia on Tuesday as the next phase of World Cup preparations gets under way at their team base in Repino.
Around 45 minutes away from the nearest city of St Petersburg, there have been questions about the suitability of the quiet area for players during the World Cup.
Englandâs much-maligned Rustenberg base in 2010 has been mentioned in the same breath, but Gareth Southgate gave short shrift to talk of boredom calling it âsad, nonsense and a big red herringâ.
Welbeck echoed the England managerâs sentiments ahead of the team heading east, with injury problems of recent years giving him a philosophical outlook.
âFor me, nothing like that seems to bother me,â he told Press Association Sport with a laugh.
âIâve had surgery and then not been allowed to put weight on my leg for two months, so Iâve been stuck in a room and that sort of stuff.
âI donât get bored now. Iâve been through that, I donât get bored.
âI know what I can do to occupy myself, occupy my brain.
âIf I am on my own, I like my own company (laughs) after that, so I am cool. That sort of stuff wonât really bother me.â
Welbeckâs approach is shaped by the eight-month injury lay-off that saw him miss Euro 2016 and has disrupted his time at Arsenal, where he has had a couple of niggling issues since recovering from that knee complaint.
âObviously as soon as you have the injury, youâre not in a happy place at all,â the 27-year-old said.
âYou know once youâve had the surgery, youâre going to be out for a certain period of time.
âItâs frustrating.
âI missed the last Euros and you miss however many months of the Premier League season and thatâs the one thing you want to do as a footballer â you want to be playing football on the football pitch and enjoying playing the game that you love.
âWhen you get an injury, that takes it away from you but thereâs things that you can do to try and take it in a positive way however hard it may be.
âWith it being an injury, it is so negative, but you try and get the positives out of it, see what you can do to learn from the game.
âYou might not be able to play but you still learn mentally and that sort of thing, so I think youâve just got to try and find that positive.
âAt the end of the day, youâve still got that hunger and desire to get back out on the pitch and thatâs what will drive you on.â
Welbeck did enough on his return to earn a place in his third major tournament squad with England, although the road to full fitness has had bumps along the way.
âWhen you come back from an injury, you donât just go âbangâ straight back into things,â he said.
âYou have to get into the repetition of playing games, of training consistently and getting more robust because youâve been out for a long time and you go straight back in at the top end of football.
âItâs hard, you feel it on your body, but youâve just got to keep on sticking at it, make sure you can do whatever you can to feel as best as you can.
âYou just keep ticking away and just keep on trying to improve.â
Welbeck came off the bench last Thursday to wrap up Englandâs 2-0 friendly win against Costa Rica and is now looking to help make amends for the World Cup four years ago.
âIt makes you hungry, but I donât think you need the extra motivation going into a World Cup,â the forward, one of the five survivors from the 2014 squad, said.
âI think itâs important not to dwell on the past.
âObviously we know that wasnât good enough and since then the team, the squad, has come on such a long way.
âWe look forward to it with hope and optimism and focus on the World Cup positively.â