Uncapped Michael Dawson called it a “crazy” Friday after he was called up to replace captain Rio Ferdinand in England’s World Cup squad.
The Tottenham Hotspur defender was arranging a holiday when the phone rang to tell him he had an hour to pack his bags and head for the airport for a flight to South Africa.
“Things can change in a split second,” Dawson told the Spurs Web site. “One minute, I’m trying to arrange my holiday, then I get a call asking if I was on holiday because Rio had pulled out of training.”
“I said ‘no’ and then I was just waiting by the phone before getting a call saying I would be picked up in an hour,” he said. “It’s been a crazy day.”
Dawson is no stranger to the England camp, having trained with the 30-man preliminary squad before being told by manager Fabio Capello on Tuesday he had not made the final 23.
The 26-year-old was untested in any of England’s warm-up games, but the powerful centerback was impressive last season for Spurs as they leapfrogged more fancied sides to take fourth spot in the Premier League and a Champions League qualifying place.
“I know all the lads through having been with them for two weeks, so I’ll just be going out there and training as normal,” Dawson said. “I’ll be going out there still having not yet won a senior cap, so where better place to get one?”
“For Rio to get injured, there would be no worse feeling for him as a player,” Dawson said. “To miss the biggest tournament in the world as the captain, I feel for him. I missed the League Cup final [win over Chelsea] in 2008 and there was nothing anyone could have said to me that could have made me feel any better.”
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