As one of the most experienced players in the England Under-21s squad, Nathaniel Chalobah knows Poland 2017 is his last chance to land another medal with the Young Lions.
The Chelsea midfielder has 95 caps at various levels with England and has already won the U17 Euro title in 2010 and the Toulon Tournament in 2016, as well as featuring in an U17 World Cup Final quarter final and an U19 Euro semi-final in 2012.
But after already banking those experiences in his career, the south Londoner says he’s more interested in what lies ahead as England prepare to face Poland on Thursday.
Aidy Boothroyd’s side know that a win against the tournament hosts will take them through to next week’s semi-finals and Chalobah admits he’s glad that their progress is in their own hands.
“Hopefully there’s a few more [caps] to come,” he said, ahead of the match in Kielce.
“We need to focus on the game tomorrow, it’s in our hands and we just want to get through the group and into the semi-final.
“Right now, it’s about me focusing on the games as they come and our concentration now is here and getting out of the group stages and hopefully going on to win the tournament.”
Chalobah has been a key part of the squad throughout qualification for the finals, his third stint at this stage of the competition after his involvement in Israel 2013 and Czech Republic in 2015.
And along with the likes of Nathan Redmond, James Ward-Prowse and Calum Chambers, he believes there is enough character in the dressing room as was shown during the turnaround in Monday’s win over Slovakia.
“We have a lot of respect for each other in the group and everyone’s got a right to say what they feel,” he revealed.
“It doesn’t really matter what time it is. When we got in the changing room [on Monday], there were a few words being said, we took it on board really well and sat down to listen to each other.
“Aidy said what he had to say which calmed us down a lot and we took it out there in the second half.
“We’ve got a lot of characters in the changing room and no-one likes losing so there are a lot of voices.
“We’ve just got to keep smiling, keep enjoying it and try to kick-on really.”
Thursday's game with Poland kicks-off at 7.45pm and will be shown live in the UK on Sky Sports.
