Sam Surridge hails Cooper after England U21 call

Sam Surridge says working under Steve Cooper at Swansea City has been “brilliant” for his development as he eyes a potential England Under-21 debut.

The 21-year-old striker joined the Swans on loan from Bournemouth in August, and has already racked up four goals for his new club.

His form has seen him rewarded with a call-up by Young Lions boss Aidy Boothroyd, Surridge’s first representative selection at any level, and he feels it shows the benefit of the decision to have a spell on loan at the Liberty.

“I was doing well in pre-season this year but it’s hard getting in the team at Bournemouth and they knew I needed to play games,” he told thefa.com.

“So it was always the plan to go back on loan so Swansea was a good move for me.

“Coops has been brilliant with me, when I joined he knew about me from watching games so I trusted him and he’s got Marge [Martyn Margetson] the goalkeeping coach who is here with England and Marshy [Mike Marsh], and they’ve all been really good.

“It’s a bonus for me that we’re doing so well, if we get promoted it’ll be even better for me because that would be a massive thing for me personally.”

Surridge admits his call-up for European Championship qualifiers against Slovenia and Austria – for which fellow Swans loanee Ben Wilmot has also been added to the squad - came out of the blue.

So much so that it required a rapid change of plans to how the forward had been expecting to spend the international break.

“It was about 10.30pm on Sunday night when Coops called me and then Aidy called straight me after to give me the details,” he explained.

“I didn’t expect it at all, so it was nice. I was going home to see my dad and I told him as soon as I got in and he wasn’t expecting it either but he was over the moon.

“I then had to try and get everything sorted but luckily I had my passport on me because all my stuff is in Swansea.

“I didn’t think we’d be meeting up until Tuesday or Wednesday, but I got picked up at 8.30 on Monday, not really knowing what was in store so it was all quite surreal.

“It’s been a hectic two days, but I’ve loved it and it’s been a good feeling. I’ve never been in an England squad before, so it was completely out of the blue.”