Newcastle United defender is said to have been labelled ‘unprofessional’ by England manager Thomas Tuchel.
Burn, who won the Carabao Cup with the Magpies just days ago, has been a colossal force at the back for Eddie Howe this term and even opened the scoring at Wembley Stadium in their recent 2-1 success against Liverpool.
The former Wigan defender has been rewarded with his first-ever Three Lions call-up and could feature during Tuchel’s first two games in charge against Albania and Latvia this month.
Dan Burn called ‘unprofessional’ by new England boss Thomas Tuchel
Burn, 32, is a new addition to the England set-up having enjoyed a superb rise with Newcastle over the past few years.
Born in Blyth, the former Darlington man has been excellent across the 2024/25 campaign and is capable of playing at both left-back and centre-back – but why has Tuchel already criticised him?
Of course, new Three Lions boss Tuchel was joking when he described Burn as ‘unprofessional’, with the former Chelsea head coach ringing the ex-Fulham defender late at night to inform him of his inclusion in the team.
“[I have] definitely had worse weeks,” Burn said with a smile at an England press conference earlier today. “It started off with the manager (Tuchel) FaceTiming me on Tuesday, saying that they were debating calling me up and he’d let me know by Thursday.
“Then it got to sort of six o’clock Thursday night and I’d not heard anything, so I said to my wife ‘Nothing’s going to happen’ then I got a text saying ‘Are you still awake?’ at 10. I was like ‘yeah’ straightaway.
“He said I was very unprofessional for not being in bed for 10 o’clock!”
Given the injuries to Harry Maguire and John Stones, Burn isn’t just around the make up the numbers and admitted he seems himself fighting for a consistent spot in the England side.
“I’m not just coming in to sort of be a cheerleader and help the boys out,” he said. “I want to play. I feel like I’ve got the ability to play at international level, and I’ve said it for a long time.”
