‘I'VE STILL GOT FIRE TO SCORE GOALS'

SAY Non-League to Premier League, and Jamie Vardy is the first – and only – name on anyone’s lips.

- Chris Dunlavy

Yet in a different world, with a different shoulder, it might be Charlie Austin who’d scored 100 Premier League goals.

It might be Austin who’d played in a World Cup, broken records and lived the sort of fairytale that has Hollywood studios scrambling to buy film rights.

Like Leicester forward Vardy, Austin came from Non-League, and not the professional end that rehabilitates fallen giants.

Kintbury Rangers, Hungerford, Thatcham and Poole; those are the places where Austin plundered his goals, often after a shift at the building site and a pint in the pub.

But a trial with Swindon in 2009 ignited a fuse that blasted the bustling striker all the way to the top flight with QPR. There, in his debut season, he scored 18 goals to finish as the fourth-highest scorer after Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane and Diego Costa.

“He can be what he wants, the boy,” said Hoops boss Harry Redknapp. But it wasn’t true. By that stage, Austin had already dislocated his shoulder four times. A fifth, after joining Southampton for £4m in 2016, spelled the end of his days as a regular starter at the highest level.

Today, aged 31, Austin is back at Loftus Road, re-signed last Monday after being offloaded by West Brom.

“When the opportunity came and I was asked to come back - it was a no-brainer for me,” insists Austin. “I said to them ‘If we can get the deal done and the finances sorted, I’ll do it’. When I was given the nod, that was it. I was just so, so excited to get back here.”

Excited