Trevor Chalobah's eight-year old social media post goes viral after shock World Cup call up

A forgotten social media post from Trevor Chalobah went viral on Tuesday after the Chelsea defender was handed a shock call-up for the World Cup.

The 26-year-old appeared to have missed out on his best chance of playing for England at a World Cup after he was not initially named in their 26-man squad for the tournament.

Thomas Tuchel instead named Ezri Konsa, Marc Guehi, Jarell Quansah, Dan Burn and John Stones as his five central defenders for the competition, with Stones and Konsa expected to be the preferred centre-back pairing.

However, that all changed on the eve of the tournament when the Chelsea defender received a shock World Cup call-up to replace the injured Tino Livramento.

The Newcastle United defender suffered a hamstring injury during training this week and will now miss the entire tournament. Livramento has made six senior England appearances since his debut two years ago, and even if he was only expected to play a minimal role, his injury setback is disruptive to the camp so soon before their opening match.

The 23-year-old was limited to just 26 appearances for Newcastle last season, during a campaign that was disrupted by a series of different injuries.

He will be replaced in the England squad by Chelsea star Chalobah, who has just one international cap to his name, which came in the damaging 3-1 friendly defeat to Senegal last year. Although he is predominantly a centre-back, Chalobah is also capable of playing at right-back.

Chalobah's social media post resurfaces

Chalobah was a shock replacement for England in the World Cup squad, with several supporters suggesting that Manchester United defenders Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw or Newcastle teammate Lewis Hall would have been more sensible selections.

Their loss is the Chelsea defender's gain, though, and it is already clear to see just how much the World Cup call-up will mean to him this summer.

In the moments after the shock news broke, an eight-year-old social media post from Chalobah quickly went viral. Posted during the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the then-teenager simply uploaded an image of the World Cup trophy along with the caption 'One day', followed by a praying hands emoji and the hashtag #Believe.

Although supporters might disagree with the decision to select Chalobah, there can be no arguing that it is a feel-good story for the versatile defender.

England did not have long to decide on a replacement for Livramento, with FIFA only permitting a team to replace injured players up to 24 hours before their opening match of the tournament. Even then, they can only replace players who have suffered a fresh setback, rather than those who arrived injured for the start of their respective international camps earlier this month.

The rules also state players in the final 26-man squad can only be replaced by those also named in the 55-man provisional squad, with Chalobah part of the standby list.