Dan Burn eyes World Cup after finally breaking into the England squad

Dan Burn has gone from thinking he would never play for England to dreaming of the World Cup in a whirlwind week that brought a maiden call-up and a starring role in Newcastle’s Carabao Cup triumph.

The 32-year-old has taken the road less travelled to his boyhood club and international football, having suffered relegation from League Two with Darlington at the start of a career that has seen several setbacks.

Burn rose up the leagues and earned England recognition from new boss Thomas Tuchel, who selected the Blyth-born defender for the World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia.

It means an immediate Wembley return for the toast of Newcastle, having helped end a 70-year wait for a major domestic trophy by opening the scoring in Sunday’s 2-1 Carabao Cup final win against Liverpool.

“Definitely had worse weeks,” Burn said with a smile. “It started off with the manager (Tuchel) FaceTiming me on Tuesday, saying that they were debating calling me up and he’d let me know by Thursday.

“Then it got to sort of six o’clock Thursday night and I’d not heard anything, so I said to my wife ‘nothing’s going to happen’ then I got a text saying ‘are you still awake?’ at 10. I was like ‘yeah’ straightaway.

“He said I was very unprofessional for not being in bed for 10 o’clock!”

Burn said he told Tuchel he could offer just as much off the pitch as on it, with the towering defender arriving at St George’s Park with unwavering belief.

“I’m not just coming in to sort of be a cheerleader and help the boys out,” he said. “I want to play.

“I feel like I’ve got the ability to play at international level, and I’ve said it for a long time.”

Those chances have not been forthcoming in the past and it was understandable that Burn feared the