The upcoming international break marks five years since Danny Drinkwater made his England debut whilst he was a player at Leicester City.

Fresh off of the Foxes' title triumph and at the peak of his powers, he has since endured a dramatic fall from grace following his move to Chelsea.

His switch to Stamford Bridge is a chief example of the mastery and excellent decision making from Director of Football Jon Rudkin that has seen Leicester City become one of the transfer market masters in recent years.

Since earning promotion to the Premier League in 2014, the Foxes have raked in approximately £323m in transfer fees by selling key players all whilst seemingly still managing to improve their squad.

The Foxes sold Drinkwater for approximately £35m in 2017, then a club transfer record for Leicester – a fee which has consequently been eclipsed by the sales of Riyad Mahrez and Harry Maguire.

For context, it only took £40m for the Foxes to bring Youri Tielemans in from AS Monaco just two years after the Englishman left for the capital.

The two midfielders have certainly had completely different career trajectories since.

Whilst the Belgian has been key to the Foxes’ assaults on the UEFA Champions League places, Drinkwater has failed at Chelsea and has endured poor loan spells at Burnley and Aston Villa. He now finds himself stuck in the wilderness of the Turkish Super Lig with relegation-threatened Kasimpasa - about as far out of the England picture as it is possible to get.

Since his big-money move from Leicester, he has played just 34 matches. Tielemans meanwhile has taken to the pitch more than that in just the 2020/21 season alone.

From his reported £35m transfer fee, Drinkwater is now rated at just £2.88m – a dramatic fall for a player who is just 31 years of age.

Leicester then will be delighted that they elected to sell to Chelsea when they did, showing the type of timing that has only enhanced their sparkling reputation in the transfer market, especially as sellers, five years on from Drinkwater's international bow.

AND in more news, have a look at which Foxes star could worry Rodgers with a potential absence from his national side...