PRESUMING Mason Mount spent his time in lockdown more productively than I, and avoided being on first-name terms with at least three JustEat delivery drivers, he should start against the Germans.

Tournament football has always been survival of the fittest. And I think we can safely assume the Chelsea midfielder has not spent his time in self-isolation making different types of sourdough bread, or rattling through many flavours of Ben and Jerry’s – which is definitely not what this reporter did with the year 2020.

Rather, he will have been keeping fit in the back yard, or ‘St George’s Park’ to call it by its Sunday name, and dropping in on every team meeting and tactical session via Skype, Teams, Zoom or that godforsaken House Party app which everyone seemed to have last year.

Fresh, ready to go, I cannot think of anyone who will be more motivated to start a game than someone who has only had Netflix and Amazon for company for the last week or so.

Energy is the name of the game in the second round, as Wales found out on Saturday. All their travelling, a slim squad whose key components are the wrong side of 30, and they were played off the park by the Danes.

Austria eventually ran out of steam, too, albeit not before a brave display against Italy.

Both losing teams had been playing at full tilt in the group stages, which is not an accusation you could level at Gareth Southgate’s side.

It has been a rare occasion that England have shifted beyond third gear in this tournament, whether by accident or design. Could it be that their limitations will actually prove their saviour?

They expended exactly the right amount of effort to top the group, ensuring there would be minimal miles racked up beyond North London, and other than Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell’s Covid-19 isolation and the ongoing rehabilitation of Jordan Henderson and Harry Maguire, it has been form, rather than fitness, which has been a concern of the average England onlooker in the last couple of weeks.

Now we get to the stage of the competition where teams traditionally start losing personnel to suspension at key moments – but when you consider the physical pressures placed on top-level footballers in the last 18 months during the pandemic, should we be more concerned about over-loading them at this stage of the summer?

The knock-on effects in the Premier League, which gets underway on August 14, will surely be considerable.

On Tuesday, England come up against a German side who got pushed all the way by an energetic Hungarian team in the final group stage. They matched up 3-4-3 – which presents Southgate with a completely different tactical problem – but primarily found a way of neutralising their two wider midfield players Joshua Kimmich and Robin Gosens, who have been outstanding in the Euros thus far.

If the England manager decides to revert back to the shape he played at the World Cup then Mount’s return will not be a given – but if he rallies against type and decides to give Germany something to think about by keeping his 4-3-3 and those wider players pushed up behind the rampaging Kimmich and Gosens, then we really might have a game on our hands.

The clamour for Grealish/Foden/Sako now seems to have been replaced by one to see Jadon Sancho unleashed for the first time on the tournament. The scene is set for an incredible entrance, but such a scenario seems far too Hollywood, and not very Southgate.

Unless there is a formation switch, the only spot up for real debate is alongside Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling. Given Bukayo Saka’s defensive background, he would potentially be a safer option than the out-and-out attackers.

It is with a sense of foreboding doom that I think ahead to Tuesday, regardless of shape, selection, or Mason Mount’s TV viewing habits.

I have felt hope before in these situations and I know how it can be extinguished.

Giving me almost as many shivers is the fact that should England beat Germany, then I know full well I will be thrown headlong into a summer romance that I am simply not ready for. God help us.