In mid-April, when he was recuperating from the coronavirus and suffering headaches and bouts of breathlessness, Brendan Rodgers began watching The Last Dance, the documentary about the relentlessness of Michael Jordan and how he drove the Chicago Bulls basketball team of the Nineties to their last NBA Championship.
For the previous couple of weeks, the Leicester City manager had been focused on getting better and trying to make sure he was fully recovered in time for the return of training, but studying Jordan made him want to get in touch with his players again as they began to contemplate resuming a stellar season that had embedded them in the top four.