England Under-21s defender Marc Guehi has been tapping his hero John Terry for advice as he tries to make his way in the game.
The 19-year-old Chelsea man has impressed on his first three outings for the Young Lions this season and also made his senior debut for the Blues in the Carabao Cup last month.
He is another promising youngster coming out of the Stamford Bridge academy and Guehi cites Terry as a major influence in his bid to become a regular.
“He was a captain and leader at Chelsea all his life,” he said. “I think he was underrated when it came to playing out with both feet.
“He was a great leader, a great defender and someone I definitely look up to.
“I have spoken with him and he has trained with us a few times.
“He told us to always be focused on what you do, communicating at all times and making sure you’re concentrated and that you’re having fun, enjoying what you do.”
Guehi has plenty of current players at Chelsea to look up to, given the emergence of the youngsters under Frank Lampard this season.
Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Tammy Abraham are in the senior squad while Callum Hudson-Odoi is back with the under-21s this month after his Achilles injury.
“They’re role models for me,” Guehi added. “Mason, Fikayo, Tammy – they’re young players doing really well at the moment and that’s an incentive for even more young players at Chelsea to know that if you keep working hard, there are opportunities there.
“Hopefully (it’s not far for me). I just need to keep working hard and if I’m called upon, I need to make sure I’m ready.”
Guehi is set to feature for the Young Lions in an important Euro qualifier against Austria at MK Dons on Tuesday.
The visitors are currently top of Group 3, with three wins from three, so boss Aidy Boothroyd knows a tough game lies in store.
He said: “They’re a team that can score goals. We won’t be able to be anything other than right on our game and professional and if we are then we should have enough to give them more problems than they give us hopefully.
“They will be difficult. They’re all playing. It’ll be a tough game.
“It’s one of those that if we go chasing it, we could have a problem but at the same time they’ll want to come away with something to keep them top.
“For us it’s an important one, we’ve got to go and try and win it. We’ve also got to be careful.”
