NICK Pope felt 'excitement, pride and honour' when he was told of his call-up to England's World Cup squad.

The Clarets goalkeeper was named in Gareth Southgate's 23-man squad for the tournament in Russia on the back of just 34 Premier League starts.

He has enjoyed a breakthrough campaign for Burnley since replacing the injured Tom Heaton in September and linked up with England on Monday at St George's Park as the World Cup build-up gets underway.

"It's obviously special to be here at this time. They are exciting times in the lead up to a World Cup, it's not like every other camp. It's the biggest tournament in the world," Pope said.

"I didn't want to build my hopes up too much. I didn't want to expect anything for it then not to happen. I try to stay level-headed and not get too far ahead of myself. Luckily enough I've now got a little distraction over the summer.

"There was massive excitement, pride and honour. It was a sense of achievement - out of all the English players across the world I was going to be part of the 23 that would represent the nation at the World Cup."

Pope was named in the squad last Wednesday and revealed he got the news while he was away on holiday following the end of the Premier League season.

"I found out the news when I was on holiday, about an hour-and-a-half before the squad got announced to the public," the 26-year-old said.

"I got told then and it was something that I couldn't quite believe. It came up on the TV and then it starts sinking in a little bit more and when I got here on Monday morning it really hit home."

Pope was named as one of four goalkeepers in Southgate's squad for friendlies with Holland and Italy in March, but he didn't feature in either game and he was considered the outsider to make the cut, behind Jordan Pickford, Jack Butland and Joe Hart.

But Hart paid the price for a disappointing season on loan at West Ham and Pope's form with the Clarets saw him elevated to the squad at the perfect time.

"If you could be in any squad you'd want to be in this one," he said.

"In any person's career the maximum amount of World Cups you can do is three, possibly four if you're really lucky and start really young. For someone like me in my mid-20s three is the maximum. To be involved in a World Cup squad just fills me with excitement and I'm looking forward to every day of it."

Southgate has selected the least experienced England squad in terms of caps for a World Cup since 1962 and expectations are generally considered to be much lower than in previous competitions for the Three Lions, with England only seventh favourites for the tournament.

But Pope insists confidence is high within the squad and that they want to 'set a target for future generation'.

He added: "There's a lot of excitement in the building and you feel that among the squad. We've had meetings about what we want to achieve, about how we feel and what we think about what could happen at this World Cup.

"I think the biggest thing to come out of it is what an opportunity it could be for this squad to make ourselves and the country proud and put down a marker or a legacy that will live on in the future. We want to set a target for future generations."

Pope is yet to win his first cap, but having been named in the squad that is now his next aim, with friendlies against Nigeria at Wembley on Saturday, June 2 and Costa Rica at Elland Road on Thursday, June 7 possible targets.

"That's the plan for me and that's my goal at the minute. When you get in an England squad the next goal is to get a cap," Burnley's player of the year said.

"That's something that you dream of doing as a little boy. As an England fan you watch every game growing up, when a World Cup is on or the Euros everyone is watching.

"The country stands still to watch those games and I've always been a part of that. That is hopefully the next step for myself - the next goal I want to achieve is to get my first England cap."