Tommy Smith has told the Club website of his delight at being named in the New Zealand squad for this summer's World Cup.

The 20-year-old defender has been named in All Whites' manager Ricki Herbert's final 23 for the finals after impressing on his debut in a friendly against Mexico in March.

"I'm really looking forward to it. It's every kid's dream to play in the World Cup," Tommy told the Club website.

"The manager had some encouraging words to say to me when we met up for the Mexico game and I felt I had a good chance of being in the squad but it's great when you know you are definitely going to the tournament.

"I'm flying down to New Zealand later this week and will meet up with the squad from there.

"Hopefully I will have time to catch up with my family. I've got a brother and sister living in New Zealand. Then we play Australia in Melbourne with 100,000 watching which is going to be a great occasion.

"We've got a training camp in Austria, which will be at high altitude to give us a taste of what conditions will be like in South Africa and then we play friendlies against Serbia and Slovenia before going to South Africa for another warm-up game against Chile."

New Zealand, who will be based in Rustenburg, begin their campaign against Slovakia on June 15, then play World Cup holders Italy five days later before finishing their group games against Paraguay on June 24.

Watch out for Tommy's World Cup diary on the Club website through the tournament.