FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Carabao Cup - Second Round - AFC Wimbledon v Ipswich Town - Cherry Red Records Stadium, London, Britain - August 28, 2024 Ipswich Town's Kalvin Phillips during the warm up before the match Action Images via Reuters/Matthew Childs/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) - Joining Ipswich Town might have seemed unthinkable for Kalvin Phillips when he was one of the first names on the England team sheet and his career was on a steep upward curve.
But now the 28-year-old former Leeds United midfielder is thankful to the Suffolk club for helping rebuild a career that was going completely off the rails.
Phillips played almost every minute of England's run to the final of the delayed Euro 2020 tournament after bursting on to the international scene under former coach Gareth Southgate.
His rapid rise resulted in a 42 million pounds ($55 million) move to Manchester City in July 2022 but rather than take his game to the next level -- Phillips stalled.
City manager Pep Guardiola's comments that Phillips returned from the Qatar World Cup out of shape hardly helped and the following January he was loaned out to West Ham United.
Phillips' stock fell even further there, giving away a goal on his debut, getting sent off in his second league start then being substituted at halftime in his third. He reached a new low in a game at Newcastle United in March when he came on as a substitute with West Ham leading 3-1 and conceded a penalty as the Hammers eventually lost 4-3.
There are positive signs, however, that Phillips has turned a corner since joining promoted Ipswich on loan and Saturday's trip to West Ham offers the chance to prove a few people wrong.
"(When coming to Ipswich) I made a decision that I wanted to play my football, not stress free, but with less stress and less eyes on me maybe," Phillips told former Leeds team mate Patrick Bamford on the My Mate's a Footballer podcast.
"At West Ham I felt like there were quite a lot of eyes on me because it was my first loan move since going to City. Obviously it didn't work out well and I got quite a bit of stick. Sometimes you can handle that well, sometimes you can go the other way and handle it not so well!"
Phillips is full of praise for Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna whose team has earned four draws from six league matches in the club's first top-flight campaign for 22 years.
"The main reason I came to Ipswich was just to get back playing football week in week out, and make sure that I'm fit again, and I'm not getting many injuries," Phillips said.
"Every club I'd go to, the manager and nutritionist, they'd always speak about weight before they'd say anything else. At a point it peed me off a little bit.
"Now I've come to Ipswich and the manager is an unbelievable person as well as a manager. We spoke about all the past stuff that happened in my career. He just said he wanted me to get to where I was when I was at Leeds."
Phillips was not even part of the conversation when England's squad was announced on Thursday for next week's Nations League fixtures.
For now though, all that he cares about is playing football again with a smile on his face.
"From day one, McKenna made me feel like I was wanted there and that was going to play a massive part this season," he said.
($1 = 0.7621 pounds)
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)
