New Scotland striker George Hirst has described his first international call-up as a “dream come true” after making the decision to switch his international allegiances from England.
The 26-year-old forward, who has represented England at youth level, made the move to join Steve Clarke’s squad after carefully considering his future prospects.
Hirst, who has four goals for Ipswich Town this season, could make his Scotland debut during the upcoming UEFA Nations League play-off clashes against Greece this week.
Reflecting on the career landmark, Hirst said: "I'm delighted. It's a bit of a dream come true to be honest - getting the chance to go and play international football.
"My grandad was Scottish and it's an opportunity to go and make him proud and all that sort of stuff."
Hirst went on to explain how the call to switch the Three Lions for the Dark Blue of Scotland came around.
He also shared that Clarke had been in contact before watching him play for Ipswich in a FA Cup fifth-round tie against Nottingham Forest on March 3, where Hirst scored the equaliser.
“I’ve known for a while that I could play for Scotland and that’s always been a big aim of mine,” he acknowledged.
“I think I’ve been asked about it in the media at Ipswich over the past year, and I’ve tried to bat it off and say that I’m going to focus on Ipswich. But, if I’m being brutally honest, it’s always been in the back of my mind.
“So, it’s just one of those. It came about. He [Steve Clarke] dropped me a text and we spoke for five to ten minutes, and he said he wanted to know if I would be interested in the chance to play for Scotland. And obviously I went and spoke to my partner and family about it, but straight away I was like ‘yeah, this is an opportunity I can’t turn down’.”
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"He told me to let him know if I was playing and he'd be at the game. I saw little bits on Twitter after the game about, 'who was he there to watch?', and I knew it was myself, so I tried to keep a little bit hush about that! It was about me going out there and trying to do the best I can, and it was good timing to get the goal."
Hirst may not be too familiar to most members of the Tartan Army. However, his attributes have already been likened to Scotland favourite Lyndon Dykes, who is absent from the March internationals through injury.
Asked to describe his main qualities, the Ipswich talisman said: “Intense, I like to get after people. I like to press. I think the one thing I can guarantee from myself is, if my touch isn’t there or my finishing isn’t there for whatever reason on the day, then the worse you are going to get is a seven out of ten and I’m going to run myself into the ground.
“I think that’s another big thing for me finding myself in the right positions at the right times when I’m doing that, and a bad game for me is when I probably haven’t ran as hard as I could do.
“So, one thing I can promise is just flat out from the get-go, whether that’s 90 minutes, whether that’s two minutes, for me it’s just about going out and giving it everything I’ve got.
“Hopefully they’ll be plenty of goals along with that as well.”
