Colchester United midfielder Brandon Comley says it is a ‘great honour’ to be called up to play international football for Montserrat.

The 22-year-old has travelled to the Caribbean island to represent them in their CONCACAF Nations League home qualifier against El Salvador, on Saturday night.

Comley, who qualifies to play for the country through his grandfather, will miss Colchester’s trip to play Tranmere Rovers in League Two on Saturday as a result of his call-up along with tonight’s Checkatrade Trophy group opener against Southampton under-21s.

But the former QPR youngster says it was too good an opportunity to turn down – and that he cannot wait to link-up with the Montserrat squad.

Comley told the Daily Gazette: “It’s a great honour to be called up.

“My brother (James) is also going and he said it was a very good experience for him last year, to get to play for a country that you have inside you and in your blood.

“Hopefully I can go and do the country of Montserrat proud.

“My grandad on my dad’s side is from the country – I haven’t been there before so this will be the first time and I can’t wait.

“It’s very beautiful and it’s the Caribbean – it’ll be a good trip away getting to know the players and staff because it’ll be my first time.

“I’m just going to try and take it in my stride and hopefully when I come back, the boys are still doing great as I’m sure they will do.

“The only downside is missing the Colchester games but something like this is hard to turn down.

“I never know when I’m going to get this opportunity again.”

Comley made his first league start of the season for Colchester in their 3-1 win at Cheltenham Town, last weekend.

The midfielder has had to bide his time to get his chance but has worked hard to get back into the side.

“It’s been a bit frustrating but I’ve been a good supporter of the team and when I’ve had the minutes, I’ve tried to do my best,” said Comley.

“It’s just the way football goes sometimes and I never let something like that affect me.

“You do your extras in training and bits in the gym and keep pushing – that’s what I’ve been doing and hopefully, I’ve shown that I’ve not been sulking and I’ve been working hard.

“I hope I proved (against Cheltenham) that I’m good enough to maybe keep my spot.

“But there’s strong competition and someone like Diaz (Wright) is an unbelievable player, who’s young and hungry.

“You’ve also got Laps who will come to come back into it but hopefully I’ve done enough (against Cheltenham) to let the gaffer know that I want that shirt and want to be playing.”

Comley believes Colchester’s win at Cheltenham is a sign of how confident they are as a squad, after they bounced back in style from their first league defeat of the season against Northampton Town.

He added: “It was a disappointing result against Northampton, so it was good to bounce straight back with a win.

“Last year, after a defeat we might have gone through a phase where we might not have won and perhaps taken a draw.

“But the confidence running through the team is high and with the players we’ve got, everyone is good enough to play.

“Nos (Luke Norris) came in for his first league start and scored two goals and it just shows the depth of the quality we have, in this team.”

“It was our first win away from home this season, so it was a great result.

“It was a great first-half performance from us.

“We knew that they were going to come out firing but we weathered the storm very well.

“They got a goal and a lot of teams would crumble after that but we composed ourselves again and as it proved, we’re never done as it proved when we counter-attacked them and got our third.”