Trai Hume wants Northern Ireland's young guns to set standard for squad

South Wales Guardian

a day ago

Hume and his Sunderland team-mate Daniel Ballard have been celebrating earning promotion to the Premier League after a dramatic play-off campaign that ended with victory over Sheffield United at Wembley.
And that came at the end of a month in which Conor Bradley received his first Premier League winner's medal with Liverpool and fellow 21-year-old Justin Devenny lifted the FA Cup with Crystal Palace.
Representing on the big stage 💚🤍 #GAWA @SunderlandAFC | @hume_trai | @dg_ballard pic.twitter.com/LBpXh9PyQ2
— Northern Ireland (@NorthernIreland) May 24, 2025
Ballard, 25, and Hume, 23, will double the Premier League contingent in Michael O'Neill's squad, something that Hume believes can only help as they look ahead to their World Cup qualifying campaign that starts in September.
'I don't think there's any doubt,' Hume said. 'You're exposing yourself to the best league in the world, so you want to try your best to do well there and if you can, you're going to become a better player because of it.
'Obviously me and Dan are still young, Conor and Justin are still young, so hopefully we can have a lot of years in the Premier League and that will only benefit Northern Ireland going forward.
'I have no doubt there's other players in the squad that will get themselves into the Premier League as well. Obviously it's us four at the minute and hopefully we can try and push the lads and bring them up to the standard that we're going to set.'
Northern Ireland are preparing for Saturday's friendly away to Denmark and Tuesday's match at home against Iceland, but their eyes are already on September when they begin their World Cup qualifying campaign with an away double-header against Luxembourg and Germany, with Slovakia also in Group A.
Playing in high-pressure games like the Championship play-off final is valuable experience ahead of facing the likes of Germany, and Hume said: 'I think it will help us deal with the atmosphere a bit better. Obviously, the calibre of players will be a lot different. I think we will try our best to deal with that.
HUUUUUUUUUUME ❤️ pic.twitter.com/leN9o87VmH
— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) June 1, 2025
'I think the big games you do play in, you get used to the emotion of it and the challenge of playing in front of the crowd and not getting caught up in the emotion of the game.
'Germany is definitely going to be a lot different than Sheffield United. Like I say, we will just have to try our best to be ready and be focused for it.'
Germany are obvious favourites to top the group, with Northern Ireland vying to beat Slovakia and Luxembourg to second place and the play-off spot that would bring.
Ballard said they would treat their games against those two nations as cup finals.
'I think we can make a really positive start to the group,' he said. 'I think the games against Luxembourg and Slovakia are going to be really important for us. I think they will all be like cup finals.
'I feel like we have a real opportunity this year to go and put ourselves in a strong spot to qualify.'