Chelsea talent Callum Hudson-Odoi has told Frank Lampard he is improving with every game as he sets his sights on a return to Gareth Southgate's senior England side.
The 20-year-old is spending this month's international break away with Aidy Boothroyd's Under-21s side and was central to their 3-1 victory over Andorra on Friday night.
Hudson-Odoi scored from the spot and picked up an assist with a delightful cross that landed right on the boot of Liverpool youngster Curtis Jones.
The win came in the Chelsea star's seventh England Under-21 outing, a level he has dropped back down to after picking up three caps for Southgate's side in 2019.
But it may take more regular appearances for Chelsea to be considered as a regular piece of Southgate's England puzzle.
"Of course, you want to be in the senior team, you want to be competing up there every time," he told BT Sport, as he opened up about his up-and-down international career.
"No matter what level I’m playing at, I want to try my best and work hard every day and hopefully get into the seniors.
"If it’s going up and down, I want to make sure I stay up there so I want to keep working hard, keep my mentality strong."
As cited by football.london on Saturday morning, Hudson-Odoi also opened up about his injury problems at Chelsea.
The forward ruptured his Achilles over 18 months ago, spending five months on the sidelines before making his return to first-team action.
Hamstring problems have seen him sidelined briefly a number of times since, but it is that Achilles problem that he says has plagued his last 42 games.
But he is seeing progress: "I feel like I’m still improving, I’m still trying to get more strength in the calf which I lost a lot of muscle from.
"But I feel like I’m getting back to my best and hopefully sooner or later I’ll be back to normal as I was before.
"I just want to keep improving, keep working hard daily, and keep getting better day-by-day."
