![\"Trai](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/tyImages-2232881641.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFor club and country he is Mr Consistent and has been chosen by Michael O\u2019Neill as the captain for the opening World Cup qualifier in Luxembourg on Thursday.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a proud skipper is Hume, but he is also honest enough to tell you the armband won\u2019t make much difference to how he performs.<\/p>\n
Neither will the fact that for the first time as an international he will line up as a Premier League footballer after helping Sunderland into the top flight of English football.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s taken to it with no fuss, playing a key role in the Black Cats winning two of their opening three fixtures.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland would settle for that in the World Cup qualifying campaign in a group containing Germany and Slovakia, as well as Luxembourg.<\/p>\n
On Luxembourg, 23-year-old Hume says: \u201cWe played them twice in the Nations League campaign last year and we know they are not an easy team to play against.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe beat them 2-0 at home and drew 2-2 at their place so we know it will be a tough game. We will be fully prepared and have analysed them and we are looking forward to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always want to get off to a good start and hopefully we can do that against Luxembourg, and then we can look forward to Germany away on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about leading the team out at the start of a World Cup qualification, Hume stated: \u201cI\u2019ve said every time I\u2019ve worn the armband it doesn\u2019t really affect how I\u2019ll approach the game or how I\u2019ll help my team-mates. It is an honour and I\u2019m really proud to wear the armband, but it doesn\u2019t really change much for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hume is not one to get too carried away. That temperament has been a big plus for him as he has improved and developed year on year at the Stadium of Light since his move from Linfield.<\/p>\n
He does smile, though, when being a Premier League player is brought up and how Sunderland have performed to date, beating West Ham and Brentford.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not been too bad. We\u2019ve won two from three and got six points and we need to keep it going,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’d like to say it’s been difficult but obviously we’ve done quite well. We’ve haven’t played any of the big boys yet, so it’s been a nice start and I’ve always said I wanted to test myself at the highest level, so getting the chance to do that this season is a dream come true and hopefully I’ll just keep playing games and keep being able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hume adds that it has been pleasing to make it to the Premier League with Sunderland, pointing out that there has been \u2018extra emotion\u2019 in doing with a club he has grown to love.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trai Hume<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s good for the group of players that have done it,\u201d said the former Blues ace.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously you can sign for a Premier League club and it’s still the same thing, you’re still getting to play in the Premier League, but it does bring that extra bit of emotion into it that you’ve done it the whole way through.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does feel that wee bit better that you’ve helped Sunderland from where they were at in League One the whole way up to where we belong really. Our plan this season is to stay there and keep pushing on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quizzed on if he felt playing for Northern Ireland had helped him prepare for facing the elite in the English game, Hume replied: \u201cProbably in a way. I probably didn’t really think of it that way, obviously playing against the likes of Denmark and Switzerland and obviously Germany on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven’t really thought of it maybe affecting me in that way going into the Premier League, but now you say that it probably has helped me in a way to get used to the top players and that top level, how concentrated you have to be in your game for the whole 90 minutes. So, yeah, it probably has helped me in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hume will be an influential figure at the back for Northern Ireland versus Luxembourg, and with Sunderland team-mate Daniel Ballard missing through injuries and other defensive options also sidelined he will have even more responsibility than usual.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the injuries aren’t ideal. No one wants to get injured and Michael and the staff doesn’t want anyone to get injured, but it\u2019s part of football, it happens,\u201d declared Hume.<\/p>\n
“We’ll have to deal with it and it’s an opportunity for some other players that maybe wouldn’t have been in the squad or might have been on the bench that might start now, so it’s an opportunity for them to impress maybe stay on the team. I think we’ll be all right.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think over the last two, three years we’ve never really had a solid set back five.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Daniel, I play with him at club level as well so obviously we have that familiarity with each other. It will be a bit weird not having him here but hopefully all the rest of the players will step up and fill his place, no problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Trai](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/e7ab9922-2c45-4956-aba4-6e59fad2c5d1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Trai Hume<\/p>\n
Hume has been linked with several moves in recent years \u2013 the latest to German club Wolfsburg in the summer just before he signed a new long term contract with Sunderland.<\/p>\n
On that he said: \u201cWe were talking about the contract basically throughout the whole summer and we were just trying to get an agreement really.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously knew there was interest from other teams coming through but I’ve always said it and my mind was always to sign a new deal at Sunderland, so why do it any other way?<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since I signed I’ve loved every second of it, and then helping the club up to the Premier League is obviously great and I want to represent them in the Premier League as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For club and country he is Mr Consistent and has been chosen by Michael O\u2019Neill as the captain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,8538,30649,16,15,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-396055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-northern-ireland-football-team","10":"tag-steven-beacom","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115143566064951911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}