What keeps him driving on? He’s quick to answer. “What keeps me going is how I felt on that first night (his 2016 debut) against Denmark – the pride, the emotion. When you’re picked to play for your country, you never know when it’s going to be your last, so you don’t take it for granted.

“Quite possibly tomorrow night, you never know. It could be the last time you’re chosen.”

McGinn, of course, has glorious history and iconic status with St Mirren and Hibs, but at Villa something extra-special has happened. His status is now deeply rooted as a legend of the club. Talk to their fans and it’s not an appraisal you get but a hagiography. Understandably.

McGinn (more than most others) was the one who got them out of the Championship in 2019, the one who kept them in the Premier League in 2020, the one who dragged them from 17th to 11th to 14th to 7th to 4th in the English top flight, the one who helped bring Champions League football, the one who captained them and scored for them when winning a European trophy last season, the one who broke their European goalscoring record.

McGinn was one of the ones who stayed. Jack Grealish didn’t, Douglas Luiz didn’t, Ollie Watkins didn’t, Emi Martinez didn’t, Youri Tielemans didn’t.

The best Villa captain since Dennis Mortimer, some say. Given that Mortimer was leader of the iconic league winning team of 1981 and the European Cup winning side of 1982 then that’s some compliment.

What makes a legend, somebody asked recently in a Villa discussion. “Humility”, “determination”, “tenacity”, “leadership”, “longevity”, “success.” One club diehard wrote that they’ve had loads of players in recent decades who tick some of those boxes but it takes a special individual to tick all of them – “and McGinn does.”

As one observer put it: “He’s unquestionably ahead of any other player we’ve had this century and surpasses some of the legends from the last one, too.” Another said that he fully expects his infant son to say to him in later life: “What was it like watching John McGinn?”

He’s too long in the tooth now to be overly influenced by praise or flak. “If I was younger, I would have been straight on Instagram or straight on Twitter,” he added. “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but at the end of the day, you keep your head down, you keep working hard.

“If you go through a barren spell or you go through a spell where you’re not doing too well, you need to find that inner self-belief, which I feel like I have. The older you get, you learn how to manage tough moments better. They get worse, though.

“The lows get lower and the highs become less high. But you certainly deal with it a lot better when you’re older. When you’re younger, it completely consumes you and you try and work too hard to come out of what could potentially be a difficult moment. But I feel as if I’m managing those times well.

“As you get older, you think, ‘Oh, can I keep doing this?’ But it certainly makes the good days a lot better. You know after a game like Switzerland, do you turn the telly on? No. Do you listen to radio reports? Nope. But if it’s 3-0 to Scotland, I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t listen to some of it.”

The prospect of following in Robertson’s footsteps is an enormous incentive. Eight to go after North Macedonia.

More fireworks to come, you hope. Compared to the huge moments in past seasons, McGinn might be in a bit of an international lull right now, but is there a single soul out there who thinks he’s done with the heroics? In the tartan-clad city of Teresa, few, you fancy, have lost belief.

Before Wang Cong faces off with her opponents, she dyes her hair green, paints her face white and draws a bright red grin from cheek to cheek.

Fans may assume Cong is paying tribute to Batman’s notorious arch-enemy the Joker, but the Chinese fighter says her persona is rooted in the joker playing card that inspired the comic-book villain.

The 34-year-old, who is on a four-fight win streak, says she can “feel the fear” in her opponents when she wears the face paint.

On Saturday at UFC 332 in Salt Lake City, Cong will be hoping she can invoke the same emotions in Brazilian Natalia Silva, when the pair fight for the vacant flyweight world title.

“It means the most powerful card, so I want to be the most powerful,” Cong tells BBC Sport.

“When I have paint on I feel crazy. It makes me perform better, it inspires me. There’s not much different between paint and no paint, this is my true personality.”

Cong has bewildered opponents at weigh-ins while wearing the face paint, and says she even adopts the Joker alias when using social media messaging back home in China.

She tossed an imaginary coin and pretended to shoot a gun before her fight against Gabriella Fernandes in 2024, while in July she bizarrely gifted Tracy Cortez a pack of fake eyelashes before the pair’s flyweight encounter.

Cong laughs as she reveals Silva can expect a “surprise” of her own before their fight at the Delta Centre, although she then turns serious as she pays tribute to her opponent.

Silva, 29, enters the contest on a 14-fight win streak across different promotions and is the favourite to capture the vacant title after Valentina Shevchenko was forced to vacate the belt last month through injury.

“She’s an incredible fighter, an eight-fight win streak in UFC, beaten three former champions, she has amazing footwork, distance control and kicks,” adds Cong.

Rodri is a footballing encyclopaedia and, many would argue, the best defensive midfielder in the world.

There are few better when it comes to positional play, and he is one of the very best because of what he does himself and what he brings out in his team-mates.

Without the ball, both in the press and when dropping back, he gives that sense of security in front of the defence, especially in those moments when Barcelona lose the ball.

But he is also outstanding with the ball because he distributes it quickly and always chooses the right route. You can see all that in every Barcelona game.

His arrival has been described inside the club as one of the most significant developments of recent years on and off the pitch – playing in all but one match of Barcelona’s perfect start to the campaign.

For a squad that lost several senior voices in recent seasons, Rodri’s experience in high-pressure moments has added a stability that had been missing.

He has taken on an informal mentoring role with the club’s academy graduates, several of whom already regard him as a reference point.

He explains rather than simply demonstrates, an instinct that has surprised the coaching staff as much as his football has.

He does not wear the captain’s armband, and probably will not for some time, but inside the dressing room many already talk about him as a captain in everything but title.

Boss Hansi Flick made clear from day one that Barcelona had signed a type of midfielder they did not have, but also a reference point for a squad in the middle of rebuilding.

His partnership with Pedri has emerged as one of the more encouraging signs, as there were doubts about it.

The two combine naturally, managing tempo and sharing the responsibility for circulating the ball. Flick sees them capable of controlling matches through positioning, possession and reading of the game rather than athleticism.

Asked to compare Flick with Guardiola, Rodri was unambiguous: they are nothing alike.

He has spoken about arriving at Barcelona expecting rondos and possession drills, only to be met with days of gruelling physical work in the gym.

Guardiola trusted competition to build match sharpness. Flick has taken a different route with the players who arrived later in pre-season, working them hard from the outset.

And as you would expect from his CV and personality, Rodri has adapted to it rather than resisted it.