Hull City rightback Brian Lenihan admits he is as surprised as anybody by the pace at which his career has moved over the course of this year. And the 20-year-old, who trained yesterday with the Irish senior squad for the first time, has admitted that his goal in January was simply to nail down a regular spot in the Cork City side.

“It’s been crazy,” he says. “Last year I didn’t start for Cork City so then I went back to pre-season in January with the hope of doing well and getting into the team. Lucky enough I did, played a few good games and really enjoyed that.

“Getting the move to Hull was brilliant and I’m settling in there at the moment, getting up to the pace of it and really enjoying it but then to have this (the international call-up) was unbelievable.”

Lenihan says the interest from England started to manifest itself by May but that “it was very drawn out. It was kind of lucky as we were doing well with Cork City and I was focused on that so it didn’t faze me a whole lot.”

His rise is all the more remarkable given that he played in central midfield until last year but switched to defence in pre-season when City had to contend with a few injuries. Less than a year later, Martin O’Neill now describes him as the squad’s only specialist rightback and he’s not complaining, although he’s not getting too carried away either.

“I’m not sure really what this week will be like as it was a big surprise to be called-up (but) I’m really looking forward to it. I played with the 15s, 19s and 21s so I’m kind of used to the international set-up but this will be completely different, a new challenge. I want to do as well as I can for myself and anything else is a bonus. The team has done really well recently so who knows what can happen.”