Callum Wilson reveals Newcastle United Covid-19 blow

Wilson earned his first call-up for England since 2019 after scoring six and assisting three goals in his opening 10 Premier League games for Newcastle this season. He joins United team-mates Kieran Trippier and Nick Pope as part of Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad for Qatar.

When describing the day he found out he was called-up, Wilson said via the Footballer’s Football Podcast: “It was crazy, I was taken aback, to be honest. You’re wishing and praying to get in or you feel you might have done enough but until you get that message, nothing is set in stone."

Wilson had been training away from the rest of the Newcastle team ahead of Saturday’s match against Chelsea at St James’s Park as he recovered from coronavirus. The No. 9 was named on the bench and came on as a second half substitute as The Magpies claimed a 1-0 win.

“I was at the training ground and I was doing my session outside,” Wilson added. “I was working on my own because last week I had coronavirus, so that wiped me out differently, unfortunately. I had to work one-to-one until I was negative.

“I came in from the training group and the lads are like ‘Cal, have you not heard anything?’ Tripps is sitting there just smiling so I’m thinking ‘he must have had a message’ but I had nothing!“They were like ‘check your phone’ but I don’t have my WhatsApp notifications coming up. That day I did put them on so I had a few WhatsApp notifications but none of them were from anyone apart of the England set-up.

“I’d gone into the archive. It’s a long time since I’ve been in the squad but the message was there I was happy. I got told before that it was allowed to be announced but I kept a straight face and the lads were like ‘you’re not really smiling and you’re not really disappointed’. I told them I hadn’t received anything yet.”

Wilson met up with his England team-mates on Monday before flying out to Qatar for the upcoming tournament. England will place their opening match against Iran on Monday, November 21 (kick-off 1pm BST).

It’s the first time Newcastle have had three England players at a World cup since Alan Shearer, David Batty and Rob Lee in France 1998.

Although Wilson is unlikely to start ahead of Three Lions captain Harry Kane up front, he is hoping Newcastle’s fine form will rub off on Southgate’s squad. “I’m delighted, over the moon,” he continued. “I’m glad the Chelsea game is done now as well which is another good victory.

"30 points in now, so that’s fantastic. For us, this time last year I don’t think we had a win yet. It’s crazy how far we’ve come. The hard work will continue after the focus switches back from England.“Hopefully we’ve got a trophy and World Cup to come back with.”