George Hirst reveals how his ex-England striker father reacted to him switching allegiance to Scotland

George Hirst has described his maiden Scotland call-up as a "dream come true" after switching allegiance from England.

The Ipswich Town striker has been drafted in as a late addition to Steve Clarke's squad for the Nations League play-off double-header against Greece after his paperwork was ratified by Fifa.

Hirst, who was born in Sheffield, represented England at youth level but qualifies for Scotland through his grandfather.

George Hirst during his first Scotland training session at Lesser Hampden, Glasgow. Picture date: Monday March 17, 2025. | PA

The 26-year-old has been in good scoring form of late, netting his fourth goal of the season in Ipswich's 4-2 home defeat by Nottingham Forest on Saturday having also netted in front of the watching Scotland head coach in an FA Cup tie against the same opposition the previous week.

He is now looking forward to his first taste of international football as Scotland take on Greece in Piraeus on Thursday before hosting the return leg at Hampden on Sunday.

"Delighted - a bit of a dream come true to be honest," was how Hirst reacted to his call-up during an interview with the Scotland National Team YouTube channel. "The chance to go and play international football... my grandad was Scottish and it's an opportunity to go and make him proud.

"I've known for a while that I could play for Scotland and that's always been a big aim of mine. I've been asked about it in the media over the past year and I've tried to bat it off, saying that I'm just going to focus on Ipswich, but if I'm being brutally honest it's always been in the back of my mind."

Hirst revealed that he spoke with Clarke before the Scotland head coach watched him score for Ipswich during an FA Cup fixture against Nottingham Forest earlier this month.

"He dropped me a text and asked for a phone call," Hirst explained. "We spoke for five to 10 minutes and he wanted to know whether I'd be interested in the chance to play for Scotland. I went and spoke to my partner and my family about it, but straight away I was like, 'yeah, this is an opportunity I definitely can't turn down'.

Ipswich Town striker George Hirst celebrates scoring the opening goal of the FA Cup fifth round tie against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) | AFP via Getty Images

"He told me to let him know if I was playing and he'd be at the game. I saw little bits on Twitter after the game about, 'who was he there to watch?', and I knew it was myself, so I tried to keep a little bit hush about that! It was about me going out there and trying to do the best I can, and it was good timing to get the goal."

Hirst is the son of former Sheffield Wednesday striker David Hirst, who earned three caps for England. He revealed that his father gave him his blessing to switch allegiance.

"There wasn't really much of a conversation. I mentioned to him that I had the phone call and his first words were, 'go and do it - your grandad would be very proud of you going to play for Scotland' and that was a big thing for me.

"He said to me his greatest honour in his career was playing international football, and he said, 'you've got that opportunity now, go and give it your best shot and see where it takes you'."

Hirst described his playing style as “intense”, adding: “I like to get after people. I like to press. The one thing I can guarantee from myself is that if my touch isn't there or my finishing isn't there for whatever reason on the day, then the worst you're going to get is a seven out of 10.

“I'm going to run myself into the ground. That's probably the biggest thing for me. I find myself in the right positions at the right time when I’m doing that. A bad game to me is when I've not ran as hard as I could do.

“That's one thing I can promise is just flat out from the get go. Whether that's 90 minutes or two minutes. It's just about going out there and giving everything I've got and hopefully there'll be plenty of goals along with that as well.”