Despite suffering a 4-0 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park, Leicester City manager Ruud van Nistelrooy was able to hail his former protege Jarrad Branthwaite.

The Blues defender saw his fledgling career take off in spectacular fashion when spending the 2022/23 season on loan at PSV Eindhoven where Van Nistelrooy was head coach, after former Goodison Park chief executive Marcel Brands, the man who plucked him from Carlisle United as a 17-year-old, took him to the Dutch side to develop.

The former Manchester United striker said: “It was a joy to work with Jarrad. He came as a young lad on loan.

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“He learned a lot at PSV and we won trophies there together. The way he improved was fantastic, through hard work and through training every day.

“He got himself to a great level and to the national team. There’s a great future ahead for him.”

Although Branthwaite followed up his season in the Netherlands, where he lifted the KNVB Cup under Van Nistelrooy at PSV, with his breakthrough campaign at Everton, playing 35 Premier League matches last term, this proved to be a painful reunion for his 48-year-old former mentor.

The Dutchman said: “After 10 seconds and after five minutes, you’re two-nil down at Goodison against a team that keeps some of the most clean sheets. That sums it up, we gave ourselves a mountain to climb and didn’t really come back from that.

“If you have a start like that, then it’s difficult. Then you have to open up early, and Everton did well in being as effective as they were, attacking our back line with deep runs.

“But then again, if you go into half-time at two-nil, it’s a different game. We conceded a fairly easy goal on 47 minutes, so that summed our first half up, I think.

“It was a disappointing afternoon but also credit to Everton of course.”