Max Aarons says that it's a complete honour for him to represent England, with the right-back involved in the Under-21s squad ahead of fixtures against France and Croatia.
"Every time I receive a call-up to come here \[England Under-21s\], it's been an honour. That's something that I feel from the first one, up until now. It's obviously a complete honour to represent my country," Aarons said.
"I always try my best when I play for England, and there's a big tournament coming up. I feel like we underachieved in the last tournament, so we really want to put that right this time around. It's an unbelievable squad. If our mentality is right, I think we can have a really good tournament.
"The higher up through the age groups you go, the tougher it gets. You can definitely feel that, but I feel like our squad is one of the best out there. The mentality of the group is great too, so I feel like we can achieve anything that we want."
On his prospects of moving up a level into the full England set-up, Aarons outlined how important it is stay to stay fresh at club and underage international level to put himself in contention.
"The competition for the right-back position in the senior team is massively tough. You can look as it being a really tough issue for me, but I'm looking at it as there's a lot of great players there in that position. You've got to be at your best if you want to play for England," he explained.
"All positions are like that with England, and it's going to be massively tough to get into the team. That's everyone's aim, that's my aim, and it's been my aim from the start. There's some top, top right-backs, and hopefully I can break into that.
"I like to think that I'm at that level where I can compete, and you've got to show that at club level too. Hopefully that will get me to that point. But it's a competitive position with a lot of great players there."