JACK Cork is hoping to fulfil a dream by securing his place in England’s World Cup squad this summer.

The Clarets midfielder is one of several Burnley players in contention for a Three Lions call, with Gareth Southgate set to announce his squad for friendlies with Holland and Italy on Thursday.

Cork will be looking to stay in the squad having been a late call-up for the last internationals in November following a number of withdrawals.

That allowed the 28-year-old the opportunity to impress Southgate and his staff first hand and he made his England debut with a four-minute cameo off the bench against world champions Germany at Wembley.

Cork revealed he has had no contact so far from England, but he only found about his previous call-up hours before it was announced.

Asked if he remained hopeful of being in the squad, he said: “I don’t know, there’s a lot of midfielders coming into form at the minute and I’ve not heard anything, but then the last time I found out the morning of the call-up.

“I’ll just wait and see. I was just happy to be called up last time.”

Cork isn’t the only Claret sweating over a place in Southgate’s squad, with Nick Pope, James Tarkowski and Ben Mee all mentioned in dispatches in recent weeks.

They have had the chance to impress, with Southgate at Turf Moor for successive home fixtures against Southampton and Everton.

“We’ve come into form the last two games,” Cork said.

“I’ve heard different things about players of ours getting called up, it will be a nice to see a few of the lads getting called up because they have been playing well, the likes of Tarks and Popey.

“One of the (games Southgate was at) was Southampton and there was a lot of English players playing in that game, Everton had a few English lads as well.

“It’s good that he’s coming to Turf to see us, we know if we do play well then we’ve got a chance.”

The fight for places in the squad remains wide open in almost all areas, included in central midfield.

Rarely has the battle to make an England squad for a major tournament looked so open at this stage of the build-up, but that hands hope to those players battling to force their way in.

And while Cork is still dreaming of the chance to play in Russia, he hopes some of his teammates will be handed a chance when a new cycle starts in September if they don’t make it this summer.

“I’d love to play in a World Cup,” the former Swansea man said.

“We haven’t really played in the qualifiers so it would be understandable if he didn’t put any of us in the squad last minute, but we’re coming into form and maybe this World Cup or just after it would be good to see some of the lads involved.”