IT was 10pm last Thursday when Dan Burn got the dream Facetime call he admits he thought would never come.
It was Thomas Tuchel on the line and the call started with a light-hearted dig.
“He said I was very unprofessional for not being in bed for 10 o’clock," laughs Burn almost a week on.
Burn has gone from thinking he would never play for England to dreaming of the World Cup after 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 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."
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 England ship had sailed two months out from his 33rd birthday.
“There was a little bit of chatter around the World Cup in 2022 when I was playing left-back,” he said. “I thought there might have been a chance there.
“But I felt it was hard, having never played any international football at all worked against us but also you can’t gain international experience without getting called up, so it was a situation that wasn’t ideal.
“I did genuinely think at 32 that it had probably passed me by but when a new manager came in, there was always that feeling of ‘you never know’.”
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Burn wants to grasp this opportunity, joking he will play right wing if needed, as the door to next summer’s World Cup unexpectedly opened.
“I’d say last Monday it definitely wasn’t on my radar but now it’s got to be my ultimate aim,” he said. “I feel like there are going to be a lot of steps I’m going to have to go through to get there.
“Being in that very first camp is important but I don’t want to be here for no reason. I want to be here to improve and take my chances.”
Tuchel has stressed to England’s players the importance of camaraderie and capitalising on limited time as the new boss targets World Cup glory next summer.
Tuchel spoke about “building a brotherhood” as he announced his first England squad on Friday and reiterated that to his players when they convened at St George’s Park three days later.
Burn said: “The manager had a meeting last night speaking about that, just saying that we have really only got 24 actual training days up until the World Cup.
“When you put it in perspective, it is not a lot at all. It’s not going to be where you can really implement a strong way he wants us to play, which could take time.
“It is more going to be how we are with each other and how we interact with each other and push each other, and not being afraid to speak up if we feel that something is not right or something should change.
“I think it is about that. Especially when I was younger I would struggle with that sort of stuff because you didn’t want to ruffle any feathers or do anything bad.
“But I think that is how you learn best about each other if something is not right or you feel you could push more. I feel that is how we are going have to be if want to have that ultimate aim of winning the World Cup.”
