Wayne Rooney will know better than anyone this spells the beginning of the end.
The end of him being untouchable in the England team. The end of him being an automatic starter.
And the end of his England career.
Make no mistake, Gareth Southgate’s decision to drop Rooney for England’s World Cup qualifier in Slovenia is a huge statement, far bigger than just leaving him out for one game.
It is the first time Rooney has been dropped for England since he made his debut as a 17-year-old in February 2003.
Since then, Rooney has been feted as a special player, England’s best player and has gone on to eclipse Sir Bobby Charlton as record goalscorer and wear the captain’s armband with pride.
That is why when you drop Rooney to the bench you are stripping away his aura, you are clearly saying that he has become yesterday’s man.
But finally England has a manager in Southgate who has shown that he is ready to make the big calls, even on the biggest name of the current generation.
Rooney is stuck in a gradual decline which has been easy to trace back to last season when Louis Van Gaal regularly played him in midfield for Manchester United.
And the reason was quite simple: he was no longer good enough or, more importantly, quick enough to command a place up front either as a main striker or in a No.10 role.
Van Gaal had fallen into the familiar trap of trying to accommodate Rooney even at the expense of his team. Rooney was happy to play in midfield if it meant he got a place in the team. It’s always a recipe for disaster when one player becomes bigger than the team.
But when Jose Mourinho arrived at Old Trafford in the summer the first thing he said was that Rooney was not a midfielder.
“Maybe he is not a No.9 anymore but he will never, with me, be a No 6. He will never be 50 metres from the goal,” said Mourinho.
“For me, he will be a No.9 or a No.10, or a number nine-and-a-half, but with me he will never be a No.6, not even a No.8.”
Clearly, Mourinho had recognised the problem. Rooney was not a midfielder and he was holding back both England and Manchester United when he played there.
England’s best performance for many years came in March when they won 3-2 against world champions Germany and they did it without Rooney.
They were slick in midfield, moved the ball quickly and the team looked well balanced.
In pictures - Germany 2-3 England:
That should have been a warning sign for former England boss Roy Hodgson but even he was guilty of trying to find a place for Rooney and played him in midfield in the Euros.
Rooney had one good game against Russia, but England did not win and Hodgson quit after crashing out to Iceland while still trying to figure out his best team.
Sam Allardyce kept him as captain but, finally, Southgate is - despite only being the caretaker boss - brave enough to drop him.
The simple truth was that if Rooney could not boss the midfield against the minnows of Malta then his time really is up. Rooney was sloppy against Malta, was caught in possession, his passing was poor and any other player would have been dropped.
And that is the reality of this situation. Rooney has now become any other player. While he is officially still captain, he is no longer England’s kingpin.
His career for both club and country is drawing to a close.
Despite his poor recent form, we should not forget that he will go down as a legend for England and when he eventually retires he will probably be remembered more fondly than he is right now.
But even last week, Rooney acknowledged that he deserved to be dropped for United this season, he has lost some of his pace and is going through a “transition” in his career.
Rooney was also asked last week whether he dreaded it coming to an end. “Any player who has played since he was a kid will say that. You speak to players who have done that and they say it is a weird feeling. You enjoy it while you can. I have not even thought about it.”
You can be certain Rooney will be thinking about it now.
In pictures - England's walkaround at the Stadion Stozice:
