'I can't imagine how hard it must have been' - the family motive behind Leeds winger Jack Harrison's Qatar 2022 dream

The 25-year-old’s case for a place in Gareth Southgate’s squad is as strong as it has ever been after making a blistering start to the 2022/2023 Premier League campaign.

Despite Leeds’ relegation woes, Harrison began to hit his stride last term and has gone from strength to strength under new manager Jesse Marsch.

This season, the winger has scored one and assisted three, having a hand in more than half of United’s seven-goal haul as his team have raced to the top of the table.

If Marsch’s side can keep up their strong start to the campaign, there are surely more goals on the way for Harrison, who has developed a particularly effective working relationship with in-form Rodrigo.

With Qatar 2022 fast approaching, Harrison hopes that Southgate is keeping an eye on his progress.

“For me right now, I really want to make it into the England squad, and hopefully play in a World Cup,” Harrison told the BBC. “That would be a dream come true, I think, it’s something that I've been striving towards over the last couple of years.

“It's been full of ups and downs, and I know at times my performances have not been the best but, I’ve tried to push through those moments.

“I think the back end of last year coming into this year, it's been a good kind of progression from where I was at at the start of last year. So I'm just looking to build on that and trying to be more consistent, as consistent as possible, and hopefully I'll get the opportunity to make the squad.”

When the winger imagines a potential call-up, it’s the reaction of his family that he fantasizes about the most.

"I don't even know how you would describe it,” Harrison said, when asked what it would mean to be named in the Three Lions’ squad.

"For me, just to see my family faces, that moment, if I were to make it would be the most gratifying moment, I think, or gratifying thing for me. It's just to see my family's reaction really, to just kind of do it for them because they're always giving me all the support and they always want the best for me. To have made it to an England squad or to a World Cup would be an absolute dream come true. And it would mean the most to them, so that's what I'm striving for.”

But of everyone he wishes to pay back, it’s his mother - who encouraged him to leave the Manchester United academy as a teenager to ply his trade in the United States – who is most deserving of the joy that would come with a call from Southgate.

Harrison said: “She sacrificed so much for me and I'm aware of everything that she did to me and I'm trying to repay her for all the time and effort that she put into me when I was younger – even from the age of six, going to the academy five times a week and playing games on the weekend, and travelling to and from work and getting home at 10 or 11 o'clock at night after training.”

“So I understand how difficult it was for her - especially as a single mother as well. With me being her only child and going to the US at 14, I can't even imagine how hard it must have been but like I said, I'm aware of everything that she sacrificed.

"I'm just trying to repay back for everything that she has done for me.”