"Scouts came to watch me and I had an absolute stinker - I smelled out the entire pitch!" - Michail Antonio rues late start to international career

Michail Antonio leads Jamaica out.

Michail Antonio must have thought that international football was just never going to happen for him before he finally got his first cap for Jamaica at the age of 31.

The forward had the opportunity to represent the Caribbean nation nearly a decade earlier, but let it slip through his grasp.

By the time they came calling again, he had a realistic shot at making it into the England squad and was called up multiple times, only for injury to rule him out each time.

'I went to three England camps, then did my hamstring and never got called up again'

Michail Antonio is proud to have played for Jamaica (Image credit: Getty Images)

Antonio finally made his international bow in 2021 and has since gone on to accumulate 28 caps for Jamaica.

And while the forward is proud to have played his part, it would be entirely fair for him to wonder about what might have been had it not been for those repeated bouts of bad luck.

Michail Antonio has scored five goals for Jamaica (Image credit: Getty Images)

Antonio told FourFourTwo: "I was in three England squads and got called up for two others, but got injured for the other two, so I wasn’t able to go.

"I always wanted to play for Jamaica – every year from when I was born until I was 14, my mum took me to Jamaica so that I knew the culture.

"[Jamaica] scouted me at Sheffield Wednesday and said, 'We want you to come'.

"But they came to my next game against Leeds and I had an absolute stinker - I smelled out the entire pitch!

So they didn’t call me up for the next international – they were calling up players in League Two, and I’d been in the Championship for two years.

I’d been doing well enough – they saw me in a bad game, so I understand that they might think I’m not good...but it was one game. That annoyed me.

Michail Antonio returned from his car crash injuries by representing Jamaica at the Gold Cup last summer (Image credit: Getty Images)

"Then they didn’t try to call me back up until Nottingham Forest, although I didn’t know about that call-up.

"At West Ham, I went to three England camps, then did my hamstring and missed the Euros, then never got called up again.

"Had that injury not happened, I definitely would have played a few games – how many I’m not sure, with the quality England had.

"But I got called up by Jamaica and I don’t regret it, I enjoyed every moment."