The highly-rated 19-year-old defender has broken into the Preston side in the past two months, starting eight of their past 10 matches and recently won praise from boss Graham Westley for his performances.

The Melbourne-born youngster joined Preston in 2009 but speaking exclusively to au.fourfourtwo.com revealed he hadn't heard from one member of the Australia set-up since a Joeys trip to America shortly before arriving at Deepdale as a scholar.

“I haven't heard a thing from Australia to be honest. The last time I was involved was before I had my trial with Preston,” Wright revealed. “Since the trip to the Joeys to America, I've never spoken to anyone from Australia, or had contact from anyone about any teams.

“I'll just concentrate on my football and not worry about it too much. If I get selected it'd be brilliant, I'd love to play for my country but I've not heard a thing ever from anyone.”

Wright, who made the Preston first-team squad late in the 2009-10 season before making his Championship debut last term as the Lilywhites were relegated, added the lack of national team contact had been frustrating.

“It can be frustrating, you want to play for your country,” he said. "There's a few lads here who play for Northern Ireland and Republic (of Ireland) so it'd be nice to see what it's like to play international football again.”

Despite the lack of contact, the VIS product, whose mother is from the Channel Islands in England and his father's parents are from the West Ham region, made it clear he'd love to one day pull on the green and gold.

“Definitely, I'd love to play for my country. I'd absolutely love it,” he said.

“It was one of my dreams as a kid. I remember sitting up watching Australia when we made the World Cup and beat Uruguay, I was absolutely buzzing and thought 'I'd love to be part of that'.”

He added: “I'm not sure if people in Australia know about me, or if it is harder to follow over here than it is in the A-League. I know there's a lad at Blackburn Rovers called Jamie MacLaren who's doing really well, and he's had a few opportunities to play for Australia.”

However, Wright remains optimistic an Australian under-age call-up will eventually come as long as he continues to progress at Preston, who are famous for being the first English champions, having founded the Football League in 1888. The teenager said he has learned a lot during his recent run in the Preston side.

“Tactical things about the game, how to adapt to the way teams start and their shape. It's something you learn a lot more about when you play first-team because it's talked about a lot more, whereas reserves you just go out and play,” he said.

He continued: “I have learned a lot about playing in a big atmosphere in a big stadium with a big crowd which can sometimes get your nerves going a bit, but you need to learn to deal with it.”

Wright's Preston breakthrough has come since Graham Westley replaced former Hull City boss Phil Brown at Deepdale in January. The young central defender revealed the gaffer had been teaching him a new position as well.

“He's been playing me left-back as well. He's given me a chance there and he's been pretty happy with how I've been doing,” said Wright, who is right-sided.

“It's not a position I've played before and it's not natural, so I'm still learning it and becoming comfortable with it. But I'm happy to learn and be playing and get my chance.

“He has played me a few times at centre back in recent weeks and that's my preferred position, but wherever he wants to play me I'll play.”

Wright is an example of a young Australian player who didn't come through the A-League system, opting to head to England where he organised trials with the Lilywhites and Blackburn and said he'd loved his football education at Preston.

“I always remember the FA Youth Cup playing Manchester City and Sunderland who we beat, as well as Everton, so you look at that and think you've played some top clubs with good youth teams. You get to play against quality players at the top level of your age,” he said.

“I haven't been in Australia for a while and I've had some good coaches in Australia, but the coaches I've had here have been brilliant. I've worked with guys who've played in the Premier League as central defenders such as David Unsworth, so I've learned a lot from them. To have people like that working with you it's such a good option to develop you.”

Some may say 19-year-old Wright's progress is ahead of schedule – which arguably may have caught the Australian youth coaches by surprise. Wright only signed a professional contract with the club in December 2010 under Darren Ferguson, but he said he's tried to be prepared to play since penning the deal.

“I wouldn't say it's ahead of schedule or not because I've also thought after I made my first-team debut you want to be playing,” he said.

“If you don't think you're good enough to be playing, then no one else is going to think you're good enough.

“I always believed I would be good enough to play but I wasn't sure when it would happen. Obviously I'm delighted I'm playing now, and playing regularly.”

Pics thanks to Preston North End