Leicester City’s remarkable season shows no sign of letting up, with the stunning 3-1 victory at Manchester City leading many observers to wonder whether the unthinkable could happen: could the Foxes actually win the Premier League title?

Claudio Ranieri’s players have collectively surprised everyone to reach the top of the table, and with so much attention on Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez high up the goals and assists charts, it is easy to forget the supporting cast. Yes, there can be no denying that their magnificent individual seasons have propelled the Foxes to within a touching distance of completing the biggest Premier League fairytale ever, but every great side has their unsung heroes and Leicester are no different.

Many columns have been written about the tireless midfield endeavours of N’Golo Kante and this past week a certain Danny Drinkwater grabbed the headlines for his authoritative display against Manchester City. Drinkwater’s form is not an overnight thing. He has long been the heart of Leicester’s midfield. He is the anchor, the heartbeat, the midfielder who managed to overcome being a Manchester United reject and become one of the main lieutenants in Ranieri’s revolution.

Back in 2011, Drinkwater wasn’t getting a look-in at Old Trafford and was shipped away on loan to Cardiff City. At Cardiff, he arrived as a 20-year-old who was one of a number of loan players brought in by Dave Jones in what would turn out to be his last season. He made his debut on the opening day of the season and went on to make 12 appearances in all competitions. Most Cardiff fans remember him as a solid if unspectacular performer. Compared to the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Gary O’Neill he wasn’t quite able to dominate games in the middle of the park at that level.

His loan spell was cut short just after Christmas and was off to Watford where he made another 12 appearances. Another fruitless loan spell at Barnsley (17 apps) followed and Drinkwater’s career looked directionless, and anyone could predict his career was destined to be spent drifting through the lower leagues with relative obscurity. Then Leicester came calling. Drinkwater found a home at the King Power Stadium, thriving under Nigel Pearson as the Foxes pushed for promotion from the Championship.

If you would have asked fans then whether they would have imagined Drinkwater going on to star for a team capable of challenging for the Premier League Title, there was sure to have been only one response. Now he has formed a fine midfield partnership with Kante that has proved so productive it has kept Swiss international star Gokhan Inler, a man who has made 89 appearances for his country and won the Coppa Italia twice with Napoli, out of the starting eleven.

With Kante providing the energy around the field and breaking up the play that Drinkwater has often been relied on for in the past, there are also signs that he is taking on more creative responsibility and is the supply line for Vardy. He has four assists in the Premier League so far this season – one a sublime through ball for the England international to round Jack Butland in the thunderous 3-0 win over Stoke City. That came after he had himself found the back of the net with a low drilled effort.

Against Manchester City, Drinkwater continued to express himself and display the confidence that is running through all of Leicester’s players at this moment in time. And against Liverpool, he was at the centre of a number of passages of play similar to Barcelona’s tiki-taka with one touch passing and backheels that mesmerised Jurgen Klopp’s side and on one occasion could have resulted in a penalty for Shinji Okazaki.

Drinkwater’s form, going hand-in-hand with Leicester’s, has even led to calls for his inclusion in Roy Hodgson’s England plans ahead of Euro 2016. In the meantime, there is a notion gathering pace that Drinkwater, even more than team-mate Vardy, could solve a problem for Hodgson this summer.

If we accept that Dele Alli’s inclusion in England’s starting line-up is now irresistible, questions remain about his defensive midfield partner. The fear is that, just because Alli can put in a tackle, he will get lumbered with the role. It has happened before. Jack Wilshere ended up deeper than Fabian Delph early in the qualifying campaign.

England have good creative midfielders but few capable of adequately protecting the back four. Wilshere is out injured and it isn’t his role. Delph, Michael Carrick, Jordan Henderson, Jonjo Shelvey, Tom Cleverley and Ryan Mason are not good enough. They would not get into any other major team at the tournament. Eric Dier impressed on his full debut against France in November, although it is hard to read too much into that game. And then there is Drinkwater.

He has been magnificent for Leicester this season. There was no comparison between him and Delph, head to head, last Saturday. Yet if players such as Alli and Ross Barkley are to be used to their maximum potential in France, the defensive midfield role is vital. It needs a player with discipline and little ego, who can do the job as asked and no group of players have executed a gameplan as efficiently as Leicester this season.

Drinkwater isn’t a conventional defensive shield as Kante does all the dirty work for Ranieri’s side but that does not matter here. He has a high energy level, tackles well and possesses good positional sense, all good qualities of a defensive midfielder. Given the opportunity to play for England, it is worth discovering if he also has the selflessness and discipline to make the slight alterations to his game and utilise those attributes that Hodgson needs.

Drinkwater is a fiercely driven individual, who recognised well and early that his career wasn’t panning out like he had planned when he first set foot in United’s prestigious Carrington training ground. After failing to impress at Cardiff, Watford and Barnsley, it has been quite a turnaround for a man who is still only 25. He is the symbol of Leicester City’s spirit and togetherness as a whole, and there are very few Englishmen who have performed better than him this season. It would be a waste to stay blind to this transformation.

This article is written by Shantanu Ambekar, you can follow him on Twitter at @ShantanuAmbekar. What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment via our comments box below. Make sure you follow us on Twitter,Google+ and like us on Facebook.

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