Fraizer Campbell in the England squad a year after fearing injury had ended the Sunderland striker's career Campbell, born in Huddersfield, joined Manchester United's Academy when he was just 11 and caught the eye as he progressed through the age ranks. He enjoyed a prolific spell at Royal Antwerp in Belgium - 21 goals in 33 games - and another in the Championship with Hull - 15 in 34 games - but his path to the first team at Old Trafford was blocked by Carlos Tévez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov. "It was the right time for me to leave, it was perfect time," he says. I had Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney to compete with and then Berbatov came in. There wasn't much space for a youngster to break into the side because there were so many great strikers there. I'd already spent the last couple of years on loan and I didn't want to be moving around all the time. I wanted to go somewhere and put down some roots which is why I signed for Sunderland. It was an easy decision for me to make and it was the right one. Steve Bruce spotted his chance and persuaded Sir Alex Ferguson to sell for £6m in the summer of 2009. Although Campbell, initially failed to get pulses racing on Wearside he found form towards the end of that first year. In the pre-season that followed, Campbell looked a completely different player, outshining his team-mate Darren Bent, who he will link up with again on international duty next week. Bruce could hardly contain his excitement, predicting Campbell would play for England that season. Quick and a deadly finisher, Campbell looked as though he was going to be one of the most talked about strikers in the country before that horrendous day in Manchester. An affable, friendly, down to earth and humble individual, nobody will begrudge him his sudden rise to national fame. There is not a better liked player at Sunderland, either with team-mates or staff. "When that goal went in against Middlesbrough it was a massive relief, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders," Campbell said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph last weekend. I'd had 18 months sitting on the sidelines, to score in my first game back was incredible. It was really emotional to say the least. I didn't know if I would ever be the same player. When the ball came to me, it was instinctive and that was probably the biggest thing for me. I hadn't lost that. I feel as though I'm as good as I was, but now the challenge is to get even better. Physically I'm fine, but after so long out, obviously it's hampered my development. I hope the best bits [of my career] are still to come. The player's manager, Martin O'Neill, whose midas touch in the North East appears to extend out of the region and to English football's headquarters, was understandably delighted for his player. "It's fantastic news altogether for him and it's got to be a great boost," he said. It's interesting because I saw Stuart Pearce a couple of weeks ago at Molineux for Wolves against West Brom and he mentioned to me that there was a possibility of calling up Fraizer. I wasn't sure that it was going to happen so I didn't mention it to Fraizer at all, just in case it didn't materialise. It's really great news.