If Jones had been a surprise selection in England's provisional 33-man squad for the forthcoming European Championships, there was perhaps no shock in seeing him one of the first players to be cut having failed to feature in the friendly win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday.
Nevertheless, Jones was given a rousing message by Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate in an individual chat during which he was told he had made great strides within the group and would be called upon again in the not-so-distant future.
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And that, in many ways, echoes the midfielder's campaign with Liverpool, which was ultimately hampered by untimely suspension and injury just as momentum was being gathered.
Ahead of the season, Jones - a few weeks earlier the matchwinner with England in their U21s Euros triumph - had welcomed the arrival of so many new midfielders at Anfield as merely a continuation of his fight to remain a first-team regular having ended the previous term on the left of a new-look midfield. That said, in the showpiece friendly against Bayern Munich he started in the number six role with indifferent results.
An ankle injury in the opening weeks, a contentious red card at Tottenham Hotspur and a thigh problem combined to ensure Jones had started just four Premier League games by the time Arsenal visited two days before Christmas. The tide, though, had already started to turn, with a brace of goals in the League Cup romp over West Ham United earlier in the week having previously been named captain in the Europa League dead rubber at Union Saint-Gilloise.
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