A PAINFUL knee complaint means he is missing England’s soiree in the Rio De Janeiro sunshine next month, but there will be no sunset for Leon Osman’s Everton career anytime soon.

This week the managerless Toffees brought their rumbling contract talks with the 32-year-old to a successful conclusion, and ensured a welcome piece of stability in otherwise uncertain times.

The message? Where familiarity once bred contempt for Osman and the Goodison faithful – now it breeds contentment.

There was a time not so long ago that the former academy graduate was, along with Tony Hibbert, something of a scapegoat when things went wrong.

If he was not controlling the midfield for 90 minutes, it was his number many supporters demanded to see displayed when the time for substitutions arrived.

Most acknowledged what he brings to the team; wonderfully quick feet, an eye for a pass and a decent quota of eye-catching goals, but too often his lack of pace or physicality were singled out as reasons for derision and arguments he simply wasn’t good enough to deserve David Moyes’ ongoing loyalty.

That changed last season when the Billinge-born player’s form was not only consistent but consistently good, and by November it finally won the recognition of England.

Osman surprised neutrals with an accomplished debut against Sweden, and the boost which that evening gave his confidence in turn benefited further his form in a royal blue shirt.

Think back to your highlights of Everton’s season, and the home victory over Manchester City may well spring to mind.

Recall then, how it was Osman’s divine strike which suddenly galvanised a game that might easily have meant further pain after the preceding week’s humiliation in the FA Cup.

When he was required, Osman stepped up.

Later that month, Moyes went on the record to underline his admiration for one of the few players he inherited upon taking on the Everton job.

“His performances have been excellent and he really has carried us at times,” he enthused.

“Whatever we've asked him to do – we've asked him to do different jobs at times – he's done it, he's come up with some important goals and he's had his best season at Everton for me. He has been one of the players who has carried us for a lot of the season, he really has.

“Yes, at times he has dipped under his best, like all players will do, but so far this season he has been very good.”

Moyes was right to emphasise Osman’s willingness to put the team before himself, as so often he had asked a natural central midfielder to do jobs for him on either flank.

It is far from natural territory for the veteran, but he always did it without complaint or moaning about how it impacted on his own form.

Moyes, of course, won’t be naming the team next season, but presumably Osman’s two-year deal was given his blessing on the way out.

He was undoubtedly keen for the club to retain a man he also once maintained is one of his generals in the dressing room. “We are getting to a level and the players know the level that we want. In a way, the players are young managers themselves,” he said in 2010.

“Tim Cahill, Phil Neville and Leon Osman, they see how it is and, in the future, they could go on to become good, young managers.”

It’s important something of Moyes’ intensity, professionalism and sense of what is right for a winning team remains even after he has gone.

And by making sure Osman will still be at Goodison in the future, the club have recognised that his are qualities very much worth keeping.