After five goals in his first six Premier League games, the next step seemed clear for Callum Wilson. His country called.
That next step, on a journey which has taken in Coventry City, Kettering Town and the rise to the top with Bournemouth, took longer than anyone could have imagined.
Wilson, 27, has found stepping up and scoring at a higher level easy at every stop along the way, even notching on his England debut last year despite passing up a couple of chances early on, a goal and a game he still watches back now. His self belief never wavers, but the Premier League threw an entirely different challenge at the striker. Twice.
The injury woes are well documented, two ACL injuries in the space of just 16 months have put an agonising delay on this story, a tale which will finally reach an tournament football with England at the Nations League finals this summer, a moment which has been in the sights since arriving in the top flight with a hat-trick against West Ham back in 2015. Wilson has never been one to just make up the numbers, and this year is no different.
“When you’re injured you’ve just got to get on with it, there is no point in feeling sorry for yourself, you’re the only person who is going to get yourself fit so the quicker you get your head around that the quicker and more efficient your rehab is going to be,” the England striker told Standard Sport.
“When I did come into the Premier League you just want to hit the ground running straight away, especially off the back of scoring 20 plus goals in the Championship, for me I was thinking you need to make an impact now, at this level. Getting there is the easy part, actually staying there is the hardest bit.
“I thought ‘this is easy’, scored a hat-trick and a few goals and then you get injured, but it is a case of coming back better than ever. You always have that self belief because I have already done it, it may have been a bit harder to come back if I hadn’t scored those goals.
“For me it was never a case of coming back and just being a part of the team, I wanted to make an impact again and get that recognition with England that I was close too before.”
The recognition came in call ups from Gareth Southgate either side of the new year, a start in the friendly against USA, in which he featured alongside Wayne Rooney, and an appearance off the bench on that tainted night in Montenegro.
Southgate has engendered a familial, club-like environment at international level, one which has been very welcoming to the new faces in the camp since reaching the World Cup semi-final last summer.
Wilson is one of those new arrivals, along with the likes of Jadon Sancho, Ben Chilwell and, more recently, Declan Rice. They have all been welcomed with open arms. Wilson, though, applies his own pressure to prove his worth at the next level.
“Going into a setup like that, coming from a player who has come through the leagues, not playing for a top-six team, you always want to show your worth,” he said. “Not just to the management but the players as well, you want to feel like you should be there and that you should be in their company.
“To go and score and play well that helped massively to settle in and probably make myself feel a little bit more relaxed, everyone else was fine around me. It was probably just your own sort of self belief just thinking that you’ve scored at this level now so just enjoy it, try and play as many games as possible.”
With England captain Harry Kane still returning to fitness with Tottenham, and an all English Champions League final just days before the Three Lions meet Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands in the Nations League semi-final in Portugal, Wilson is ready for whatever role comes his way next month. Whether he be leading the line or ready to come from the sideline and make his mark at the next level once more.
One thing is for certain, however. Both for Wilson, whose drive to push new boundaries after years of adversity remains remarkable and inspiring, and for this England team, just as the World Cup was only the beginning Portugal is not the final stop on this journey.
“I have only won the Championship trophy and as a player you want to win as many trophies as you can,” Wilson said. “So to go and win a trophy with the national team would be a great honour.
“The vibe is England, as a team, want to be the best in the world. Not just third, fourth of fifth, you want to be No1, that is the ultimate goal.”
England squad in full
| Goalkeepers | ||
| Jack Butland Stoke City | Tom Heaton Burnley | Jordan Pickford Everton |
| Defenders | ||
| Trent Alexander-Arnold Liverpool | Ben Chilwell Leicester City | Joe Gomez Liverpool |
| Michael Keane Everton | Harry Maguire Leicester City | Danny Rose Tottenham |
| John Stone Man City | Kieran Trippier Tottenham | Kyle Walker Man CIty |
| Midfielders | ||
| Dele Alli Tottenham | Ross Barkley Chelsea | Fabian Delph Man CIty |
| Eric Dier Tottenham | Jordan Henderson Liverpool | Jesse Lingard Man United |
| Nathan Redmond Southampton | Declan Rice West Ham | James Ward-Prowse Southampton |
| Harry Winks Tottenham | ||
| Strikers | ||
| Harry Kane Tottenham | Marcus Rashford Man United | Jadon Sancho Borussia Dortmund |
| Raheem Sterling Man CIty | Callum Wilson Bournemouth |
