North End and Australia defender Bailey Wright feels his experience with his national side has already developed him as a player and a person.
Being surrounded by international stars at one of the World’s biggest sporting competitions is certainly going to have a positive effect on a young footballer.
“It’s helped me massively both on and off the pitch, just being around these kind of players, training with them day in and day out, and just being in their company" Wright told PNE.Com in an exclusive interview.
“You learn so much from how they act and train and everything so it’s been huge for me already.”
The training techniques are different for every team and every manager and Wright is relishing the challenge and trying to improve his game even further.
“The training is different, we are preparing, I suppose tactically it’s been massive, I think we can see that the World Cup so far has been very tactical and things like that.
“I mean different managers have their own game styles and this is the same, our boss here has his own style and we work on things like that every day and make sure that we concentrate on our game that we are playing, not necessarily the game the other team are going to be playing.
“The quality of training has been really good, and its good at Preston as well, but the tempo and the sharpness that we work at is probably different over here, and the style of play is different as well.
“It’s good to learn different things because no matter when in your career, or what team you play for, or what manager you play under, everyone has their own way that they play and you have to adapt to every single way, and I’m enjoying learning this way, it’s been a great experience and something that I think has made me a different and better player.”
The 21-year-old could have left Preston two years ago, but is now a first team regular under manager Simon Grayson, and Wright couldn’t have imagine back then that he would be at a World Cup with the Australia squad.
“That’s the beauty of football, to think that I could have been leaving Preston two years ago, and now to be at a World Cup with my national team is crazy. Thankfully I stayed at Preston and have managed to play a lot of games there and to now play for my national side is a dream come true.
“But you can’t sit back on it, you have to keep looking at it and hopefully have many more years of playing and I can hopefully make a good number of appearances for my country and I will carry on working hard to do that.
“The support I have had so far has been fantastic, obviously from my family and friends, but I have had so many lovely messages from different people. It is a real confidence boost to know that so many people are watching and behind you, wanting you to do well.”
Bailey could make his first appearance for the Socceroos when they face Spain in the final group match of the 2014 World Cup on Monday night, kick-off 5pm.