Steven Gerrard tells a story in his first autobiography, published in 2006, that illustrates just what an overwhelming experience it can be for a young player to join up with his country for the first time.

Gerrard was 19 when Kevin Keegan selected him to train with England for the friendly against Argentina in February 2000. By then the midfielder was an established member of Liverpool’s team but he still felt incredibly anxious about properly meeting the likes of Alan Shearer, Tony Adams and David Beckham, so much so that having pulled up at Burnham Beeches, England’s training base, Gerrard immediately went up to his hotel room and refused to come down. “I phoned Jamie Redknapp, who was with the squad,” the now 38-year-old wrote in his book. “‘Jamie,’ I pleaded, ‘I’m upstairs shitting myself. Come and get me, please’.”

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The tale is worth recounting given the makeup of England’s present squad and the sense that when young players enter the national setup these days they are not inhibited in the way Gerrard was two decades ago. The same type of grizzled veterans and intimidating superstars are not around anymore, highlighted by the fact the most experienced member of Gareth Southgate’s party is Jordan Henderson with 49 caps. The Liverpool captain is a fine player, and well admired, but it is fair to say no England debutant is ever going to hide in their room through fear of saying hello to him.

Callum Hudson-Odoi certainly did not when he received the call to join up with the squad last Monday having arrived at the under-21s camp in Bristol for the games against Poland and Germany. The Chelsea winger found himself en route to St George’s Park instead and while the sudden turnaround was, as Hudson-Odoi put it, “a crazy experience”, he fitted in quickly and seamlessly, which he then took to the pitch as a 70th-minute substitute in Friday’s 5-0 victory over the Czech Republic at Wembley.

Breaking a 64-year-old record by becoming England’s youngest debutant in a competitive game at 18 years and 135 days, Hudson-Odoi displayed his trademark ingenuity from the left wing, seen most strikingly with the fleet-footed run and shot that led to Tomas Kalas’s own goal on 84 minutes, which followed Raheem Sterling’s hat-trick and a penalty from Harry Kane in first-half stoppage time.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hudson-Odoi and Jadon Sancho have been friends since childhood and both impressed in the 5-0 victory over Czech Republic. Photograph: Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images

“It was really open, a one-on-one situation, so I thought to myself ‘go forward’,” Hudson-Odoi said. “I got the shot off, which rebounded and went in. I’m delighted. To get the call to come on the pitch was absolutely crazy. He [Southgate] just told me to go and express myself, and when I was about to come on I thought ‘you know what, there’s no point being nervous or shy – be confident’. That’s what I tried to do.”

There was plenty of confidence on show from Hudson-Odoi in his brief cameo, almost ludicrously so given he has played only 119 minutes of top-flight football for Chelsea. Someone so young, so raw, should not look so comfortable on such a big stage and while that in part comes from a level of self-belief that has seen the player push for a move to Bayern Munich, it clearly, too, is a product of the environment created by Southgate since he took over. One of complete trust in callow talent.

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That also, in part, explains why Jadon Sancho is thriving for England. The Borussia Dortmund winger again caught the eye against the Czechs, and it says much about the increasingly youthful nature of Southgate’s squad that barely five months on from making his debut against Croatia in Rijeka, and still only a teenager himself, Sancho felt established enough to welcome the national team’s newest player into the fold on his arrival at St George’s Park last week.

“We’ve known each other since very young,” Hudson-Odoi said. “We used to play against each other and have always been close. We call each other, speak to each other, see how each other is going. He’s had a great season and since I’ve been here he’s helped me from day one, helping me feel comfortable and confident. Having a friend like that is amazing.”

Friends off the pitch, the pair clearly have an understanding on it, formed during their time together with the under-17 side who won the World Cup two years ago and seen in the way they linked up for the move that led to Kalas’s own goal; one purposeful sprint leading to another and a demonstration of the fearlessness Sancho and Hudson-Odoi developed during their childhoods in south London and which has propelled them on to the international stage.

“From young I’ve been the same way and so has he,” Hudson-Odoi said. “We grew up playing in the park and in the cages and we have that raw mentality to go at defenders, to be confident, be yourself, don’t be shy of no one. We have the confidence and ability and now we’ve got to just keep going.”

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Next up for the pair is Monday’s match against Montenegro in Podgorica as England look to make it two wins out of two at the start of their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign. Despite his impressive display against the Czech Republic, Hudson-Odoi will almost certainly return to the bench, while Sancho, on his 19th birthday, will again start should he pass a fitness check, as should Declan Rice following Eric Dier’s absence through injury.

It would be some elevation for the 20-year-old Rice who, like Hudson-Odoi, made his England debut as a late substitute on Friday, but equally it would not come as a huge surprise in the current setup, one in which the abundance of young talent is such that convention has been turned on its head. Henderson is an elder statesman, as is Sterling, only 24 but second on the list of caps with 48. It is somewhat strange and a little bizarre but also incredibly, and undeniably, exciting.