Aaron Cresswell was settling down for dinner with his girlfriend when he received the most important phone call of his career to date.

Danny Drinkwater had withdrawn from the England squad because of injury and, despite only recently returning to first-team action himself, the West Ham full-back was in.

“She had just cooked the tea at around six o’clock,” says Creswell.

“I looked at my phone and it was the physio calling. He said: ‘Aaron, you’ve been called up to the squad.’”

After presumably eating that meal in record time, Cresswell was then rushed into a car and whisked away to join the rest of the national team.

“I got the call from the FA, and I was in shock. I didn’t expect it.

“Then I was being picked up an hour later and I was on my way to St George’s Park.

“It was one phone call, then another, and then off we go.

“I rang the family and they were delighted for me to get called up, and for me of course it was a proud moment.”

While Cresswell’s Three Lions’ introduction happened quickly, his ascension to international level has been more of a slow burner.

The 26-year-old has been one of West Ham’s outstanding performers since he signed for them in 2014, and won Hammer of the Year in his debut season.

He made more appearances than any other player last season, while he was sorely missed when a knee ligament injury ruled him out for the first two months of this campaign.

Now an experienced Premier League player, Cresswell felt comfortable alongside some of the nation’s most famous footballers.

“I wasn’t overawed going in,” says Cresswell. “I knew what it was going to be like.

“It’s not as if I’m 17-years-old and I’ve never played a game in my life.

“I was new to the squad, but playing against those players over the past two or three years, you get to mingle with them and realise they’re just the same as you.”

The prospect of playing against Spain in front of 80,000 people at Wembley did not faze him, either.

“I was fine. I have played over 90 games for West Ham now and it was just another one like that.

“That’s what I told myself – it’s still a game of football, no different to what I have been playing.

“It’s a bigger pitch at Wembley, a bigger arena and more fans, but not once did I change the way I play.”

Vying for places with Danny Rose, Ryan Bertrand and Luke Shaw is even more impressive considering Cresswell originally had ambitions of playing higher up the pitch.

“I never really wanted to be a left-back,” he says, smiling.

“Growing up a Liverpool fan, I watched Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler when they were on the scene.

“But when you get older you realise you aren’t going to be a striker or a centre-midfielder.”

A left-back he is now, then. And a good one at that.

But despite now being a senior international, Cresswell’s focus remains on working hard for his club.

“I never thought I should definitely be in the England squad,” he says. “It was always just about doing my best for West Ham.

“I’ll continue that, whether I’m in the next England squad or the one after that.”

He certainly seems at ease at the international level.

And if his form over the past two years is anything to go by, a regular place could soon be his own.