Jake Clarke-Salter has branded Conor Coady an inspiration for the way he broke into the England set-up later in his career.
The 24-year-old is the subject of a feature piece in The Athletic today.
Earlier this month, it was announced Clarke-Salter was to be released by Chelsea after 16 years at the club.
He has joined Championship side QPR, and will be hoping to reinvigorate himself at Loftus Road.
Clarke-Salter had shown serious promise in his younger days at Stamford Bridge.
John Terry had actually tipped him to take his place in the first-team some day.
But it never went that way for Clarke-Salter, who only ever made two first-tea appearances for the Blues.
Clarke-Salter is also a former England U21 captain. And it was expected he would go on to represent the senior side.
It didn’t quite happen for him, but Clarke-Salter still has hopes of playing for his country one day and pointed to the success of Wolves star Coady as something that motivates him.
He said: “I look at people like Conor Coady and Tyrone Mings for inspiration that I can do what they did.
“It will always be an ambition to get an international cap.”
Coady represented England at various youth levels, but his first senior cap did not come until August 2020.
He made his debut against Iceland, becoming the first Wolves player to play for England since Steve Bull in 1990.
He’s since gone on to accrue 10 caps, and is highly regarded by Gareth Southgate and his staff.
Conor Coady’s England story is certainly inspirational
Coady’s journey to becoming a senior England international is definitely inspiring.
It just shows that chances can come at any time in one’s career if you just put the hard work in.
Of course, it helps with Coady playing for a team that is established in the Premier League.
Hopefully there are other players out there who have taken similar paths to Clarke-Salter who also take heart from Coady’s rise.