Young mid­field­er Dan Phillips is “over the moon” at be­ing called up by T&T for the first time.

The 20-year-old pow­er­house has been named in the pro­vi­sion­al squad by coach Ter­ry Fen­wick in prepa­ra­tion for the World Cup qual­i­fiers lat­er this month against Guyana and Puer­to Ri­co.

Phillips will find out on Fri­day (March 12) if he has made the 21-man squad for the back-to-back match­es. His in­volve­ment is like­ly to de­pend on his re­cov­ery from a ham­string in­jury that has kept him out for two months.

How­ev­er, his se­lec­tion is a re­flec­tion of his progress and recog­ni­tion of his reg­u­lar in­volve­ment with the first-team this sea­son. He start­ed both of the Carabao Cup ties and came on as a sub­sti­tute in games against Mid­dles­brough, Pre­ston and, most sig­nif­i­cant­ly, in the FA Cup third-round tie against Man­ches­ter Unit­ed at Old Traf­ford.

“I'm over the moon,” said Phillips, who was born in En­field to par­ents from T&T. “I'm re­al­ly, re­al­ly ex­cit­ed. I wasn't ex­pect­ing it, but it shows you that what you are do­ing with your club doesn't go un­no­ticed. It's a big ho­n­our.”

T&T reached the World Cup fi­nals for the first and on­ly time in 2006 and are now try­ing to qual­i­fy from a CON­CA­CAF group that in­cludes Saint Kitts & Nevis, Guyana, Puer­to Ri­co and Ba­hamas.

“This is the biggest com­pe­ti­tion in foot­ball so these are mas­sive games for the coun­try,” said Phillips. “My par­ents were both born in Trinidad so they are so proud. I'm re­al­ly proud of my roots and al­though I haven't been over for a while, I'm very much in touch with my fam­i­ly there.

"They are so ex­cit­ed for me and I can't wait to make them proud if I get se­lect­ed. I've spo­ken to the coach and he is ea­ger to get me over and in­to the group. I've al­ways dreamed of play­ing in­ter­na­tion­al foot­ball, so this is an­oth­er big step in my ca­reer.”

(www.wat­ford­fc.com)