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John Stones has revealed how he stripped back his game to go from a Manchester City outcast to one of the premier central defenders in Europe.

Stones, whose emergence as an auxiliary midfielder has reinvented the way Pep Guardiola's side attack, faced the lowest year of his career in 2020 when consistently overlooked and dropping down the pecking order.

The England international saw veteran midfielder Fernandinho and rookie Eric Garcia picked ahead of him in the biggest games and it appeared that his spell at the Etihad Stadium was coming to an end.

But Stones told City chiefs that he wanted to fight for his place and has since roared back as one of Guardiola's trusted stars – laying bare the mental difficulties he had to overcome in conversation with Andy's Man Club, a suicide prevention charity partnered with the Treble winners.

'I don't think you can get better without setbacks, without tough times,' Stones said. 'There was a period in my career where I wasn't playing, wasn't playing for England.