The Newcastle defender made his international bow against Albania in March at the age of 32 but felt a sense of relaxation before the game – which came just days after he helped his boyhood team end their 70-year wait for a domestic trophy.

Burn told FourFourTwo magazine: "I wasn't even nervous getting to any of the England games.

"To everybody else it was a big thing, but to me, I'd just played in the biggest game of my life. England was a bonus. I'd never expected it to happen, so I was just enjoying it."

He added: "It was strange anyway, being around that setup when you've wanted to do it your whole career. I always felt I had the ability to do it, and I think there have been players in there that I could have played ahead of, but when you get to 32, you're like, 'I probably don't stand much of a chance here, do I?'"

Burn is in contention to make Thomas Tuchel's squad at next summer's World Cup and knows it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

He said: "I think you've got to have it in your head that that's what I'm aiming for and working towards. It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I'm never, ever going to do this again.

"I'm not like Myles Lewis-Skelly, who's 19 and is probably going to play at four or five World Cups. It's either I play at this one or I never play at a World Cup."