Soccer/English FA Cup final: The irony is not lost on Wes Brown that Manchester United have found themselves in Cardiff's supposedly "lucky" Vale of Glamorgan Hotel over the last three nights - it probably felt more appropriate when they were allocated the Millennium Stadium's "jinxed" south dressing-room for today's game.
Perhaps unsurprisingly Brown gave up on superstition long ago, although he is certainly due a lucky break today when only the most rabid United-hater could begrudge him his day in the sun and a first FA Cup winner's medal.
Most footballers go through their entire career without a long-term injury but, at 24, Brown has already had to contend with snapping the cruciate ligaments in both knees, a broken ankle and serious medial ligament damage. In all he has spent 27 months in rehabilitation, and this season he has also been a victim of circumstance.
Rio Ferdinand's ban for missing a drugs test meant Brown was rushed back from his latest knee surgery seven months into what he thought would be a year-long recovery. Inevitably he made mistakes and Brown then found himself being made the scapegoat for the team's indifferent results.
To add insult to injury he has just been overlooked for England's Euro 2004 squad, despite returning to better form recently. And yet he is anything but embittered. "You couldn't get a better lad," Alex Ferguson advises before the affable Mancunian takes a seat and starts going through the emotions of a bitter-sweet season.
"I would have expected to be back in training by now, looking to get back into a team that was doing well," he says. "But it hasn't worked out that way. I was gutted for Rio because it was such a stupid ban. Then I knew I had to work harder on my fitness, but it all came too quickly.
"It took me nearly a year to get back from the first cruciate injury. This one has been seven months. It's a big difference and I wasn't as fit when I returned. Had it not been for Rio I don't think the gaffer would ever have put me back in.
"I knew I wasn't 100 per cent. I came on against Wolves and slipped for their goal. When you've been out for so long and your first couple of touches aren't good it all comes crowding in. I didn't get my touch back for four or five matches.
"Now it is starting to come back together. The two games against Porto I first started to get my feet back and felt more confidence in what I was doing. Then we had two good games against Arsenal, in which I knew I had to play well. We haven't been doing well in the league but personally it has been much better."
Ferguson has reserved his most lavish praise this week for "the best natural defender in the country" and Brown could, at the very least, have trebled his tally of seven England caps had it not been for his wretched misfortune.
"The first time I did my cruciate it was an unknown situation. People always asked me if I was afraid, but I never was. I just did the work I had to do. Roy Keane had a similar injury and he was great. The second time it was easier because I knew what I had to do myself.
"People were saying that I might never come back but after the operation I kept my head up. My mum, dad, my girlfriend and all the family were really supportive and I needed that because for the first two months you can't do much for yourself. You just sit there and depend on others."
Brown's association with United stretches back 11 years now since being spotted playing for Fletcher Moss Rangers in Manchester's junior Sunday league. His 12-year-old brother, Reece, has already been snapped up by the club's youth academy and his ambition is to play in the same team as his young sibling.
"It's probably different for people who are not from the area. If you came from Newcastle you might say it would be okay to leave one day. But I'm a local lad and I don't ever want to go anywhere.
"I remember the first time I walked into the first-team dressing-room; I was shitting it. I used to do Eric Cantona's boots, so I used to see him every morning. I was 16 and I would have a chat with him now and again. It wouldn't be a long one but it kept you going.
"Then, suddenly, you are there in the first team. You don't say anything but slowly you find your way around. I was 18 when I made my debut, against Leeds at centre half for Pally (Gary Pallister). My first full season we did the treble and I had my fair share of games. Until the quarter-finals (of the Champions League) I found myself playing quite a bit, against Barcelona, Bayern Munich . . . it still hasn't sunk in."
He goes through the list of players who have influenced him: "Gary Neville and Keano, for starters. Gary Pallister moved to Middlesbrough but big Jaap (Stam) came in and with Peter Schmeichel shouting at you it helped you grow up. Jaap was just a big, strong defender. You watched what he did and picked things up; Laurent Blanc was especially good for that. People used to hammer him but technically he was unbelievable. His positioning, his heading of the ball; it was beautiful."
Sven-Goran Eriksson's decision to favour Jamie Carragher and Ledley King as back-up to Sol Campbell and John Terry has received little scrutiny but, with an injury or two, the Swede's decision might come to haunt him.
Brown was magnificent in United's semi-final defeat of Arsenal and a less modest player might have been aggrieved to find Matthew Upson and a half fit Gareth Southgate preferred on Eriksson's standby list.
"I am not playing consistently and at the beginning I wasn't playing well at all," he says. "Maybe in the last few games I've done okay but nothing spectacular. Also, I've only been playing for three months and that is nowhere near the fitness required for such a big tournament.
"But for me to make it to a final is great and hopefully I can end a difficult year by showing off my medal. After what I've been through it would mean everything."
