For every Lions call-up, there’s a crushing silence — and players left gutted in the shadows.

For every elated reaction captured on camera during a British and Irish Lions squad announcement, there’s another moment — often unseen, where dreams dissolve in silence.

Rugby stars Chris Ashton, Danny Care and Mike Brown know that pain all too well. They’ve all been there, sat watching as names are called out — just not theirs.

A discreet club video may have caught it again this year: a player’s face blank as hope drains away when his name is never mentioned. No hugs, no messages, just a blank summer and a gut-punch of rejection.

BBC Sport’s Mike Henson has delved into the darker side of Lions selection day — a ritual of agony as much as ecstasy.

Take Kyle Sinckler. A mainstay of England’s front row, he toured with the Lions in 2017 and starred in the 2019 World Cup. But in 2021, he was left out of the initial Lions squad for South Africa. Caught on the touchline two days later after a Bristol match, Sinckler was raw.

“It’s been tough – it means so much to me,” he told TNT Sports, his voice cracking. “In a year or two it will make sense, but right now it doesn’t. I’ve never experienced something like this in my whole life.”

Danny Care knows the feeling. Despite being a consistent presence in England squads for years, he never received the call to don the iconic red jersey.

“It’s horrible,” he admitted on the Rugby Union Weekly podcast. “I love the drama of the announcement — it’s unique — but being on the other side is genuinely one of the hardest days.”

Care recalled 2009 vividly. He and close friend Ugo Monye sat together at Harlequins, both hopeful. Monye made it. Care didn’t.

“We were buzzing for Ugo. But I had to go straight out and train. Everyone’s saying sorry, but there’s nothing they can say to make it better.”

For Mike Brown, the rejection hit before training even began. In 2017, he heard the squad leak on the radio while driving to Harlequins.

“I was gutted. Embarrassed. I felt like a failure – worthless,” he shared recently. “I trained with my head in the clouds. I dropped balls, had no energy. I just wanted to go home and hide.”

Chris Ashton, despite being England’s top Premiership try-scorer and a regular threat on the wing, never made the Lions cut. In 2013, after England’s Six Nations collapse against Wales, his hopes imploded.

“It ruined my whole season,” Ashton said. “Every week, I was desperate to perform. But that pressure suffocates you — you try so hard and just can’t get going.”

Even Care, who guided Harlequins to a Premiership title in 2021, felt the same deluded hope — the rumour mill, the pundits, the glimmer.

“Sam Warburton mentioned my name. Gatland came to watch a game. You think, ‘maybe I’m on.’ But no. And I never will be.”

For some, like Sinckler, the story took a twist. After Ireland’s Andrew Porter was ruled out, Sinckler was recalled to the 2021 Lions squad. A few weeks after that tearful interview, he stepped onto the field in South Africa in the first Test.

But for most, the Lions rejection lingers forever. The elite jersey remains a symbol of what could’ve been.

Behind the highlight reels and red-shirted euphoria is another truth: every Lions squad forged in celebration also casts a shadow of heartbreak. And for rugby’s nearly men, it never truly fades.