Trai Hume less excited about his NI call-up than his mum and dad

Hume, who turned 20 last week, is in Ian Baraclough’s squad for the friendlies against Luxembourg and Hungary during this international window, a call he was never expecting having only made a couple of appearances for the Black Cats since his January move from Linfield.

“I was just going to the training ground on Sunday morning and Ian’s rung me up,” Hume said.

“I’ve answered it without knowing it’s him. He’s come on and just said he wants to call me up to the seniors. I was kind of taken aback by it and surprised, but there’s no better news.

“I rang my mum and dad straight after. They were buzzing. They were more excited than me. It kind of didn’t hit me at the start but they were buzzing. I rang my grandad after that and he was buzzing too.

“I’m kind of a chill person, I don’t get too excited over things and I kind of take it as it goes, but they were over the moon.”

The phone call Hume got last week is the dream of so many youngsters growing up in Northern Ireland – Hume has been to Windsor Park countless times as a fan himself in his youth – but he insisted there was a reason he was so calm when his moment came.

“The first thing I did when I was growing up was play football so anything that comes from football is kind of normal,” he said.

“You don’t let big games affect you, you’re here for a reason. You’re here to play football and enjoy it.”

Hume might otherwise have expected to be with the under-21s this week – John Schofield’s side face Slovakia in a Euro 2023 qualifier before a friendly against France which replaced the cancelled qualifier against Russia – but is the latest face to be promoted to the senior squad.

Baraclough, the former under-21s boss, has also handed Caolan Boyd-Munce and Paddy Lane their