Elliot Anderson says he is \u201creally thankful\u201d he rejected the chance to play for Scotland against England as he prepares for a possible full England debut this week.<\/p>\n
The Nottingham Forest midfielder withdrew from the Scotland squad ahead of a friendly against England in August 2023 and later switched his allegiance to the country of his birth.<\/p>\n
The former Newcastle academy player qualified for Scotland through his grandmother and played for the nation at youth and under-21s level before going on to help England win last summer\u2019s under-21s European Championships.<\/p>\n
He is now in Thomas Tuchel\u2019s England squad ahead of World Cup qualifiers against Andorra on Saturday and Serbia next Tuesday and says he always felt English.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went away with the Scotland team and I left camp after a few days and decided I just needed more time to make my decision, really,\u201d said the 22-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to dive into anything so I\u2019m really thankful I\u2019ve done that now. I\u2019m definitely English. That\u2019s where I see myself. It was just that I hadn\u2019t really been called up to England throughout the age groups when I was younger so I thought I\u2019d take the opportunity to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I got that belief that I thought I was good enough to play for England it hit me, and I focused on England.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyneside-born Anderson left Newcastle for Forest last summer, having first joined his boyhood club at the age of eight.<\/p>\n
He made 37 Premier League appearances last season as Forest finished seventh in the table, and he believes the move has helped to accelerate his England career.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely it was sort of a tough move at the time, but I think ultimately I probably wouldn\u2019t be sitting here now if I didn\u2019t make the move,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think sometimes you\u2019ve got to step out of your comfort zone and believe in yourself, which is what I\u2019ve done. I believed I was ready to go and play in the Premier League every week, so yeah, I don\u2019t think I would be in this position now if I didn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
If he makes his England debut in the next week, Anderson will extend the success story of Wallsend Boys Club, the Tyneside-based junior club which has produced a string of successful professional players \u2013 including former England internationals Alan Shearer, Peter Beardsley and Michael Carrick.<\/p>\n
The club also allowed a young Anderson to get advice from England legend Paul Gascoigne, who had a relative playing alongside Anderson in Wallsend\u2019s teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis nephew, I think it was, played for my team throughout the ages so I sort of got to speak to him a few times through my upbringing, so that was good,\u201d said Anderson.<\/p>\n
\u201cHim being an England legend and just being able to to speak to him and sort of learn the game from him was great. I probably didn\u2019t realise it at the time, but now it\u2019s an incredible thing really.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very proud. It\u2019s a top boys club in the north east and I think you can see that from all the professional footballers who have come through Wallsend.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a while there hasn\u2019t really been another Wallsend player to make England, so it\u2019s a really proud moment and I\u2019m just hoping I get that cap.\u201d<\/p>\n
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