Former England defender Steven Caulker is set to earn his first Sierra Leone cap at the Africa Cup of Nations after being named in the country's 28-man squad for the tournament in Cameroon on Friday.
The 30-year-old former Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur centre back won one cap for England nine years ago but has switched his international allegiance.
His father's family hail from Sierra Leone, who have also persuaded former Dutch youth international Issa Kallon to play as they return to the finals for the first time since 1996.
Caulker is one of seven British-born players in the squad, which is coached by Manchester-born John Keister, a former Sierra Leone international.
Their 17-year-old goalkeeper Ibrahim Sesay is expected to be the youngest player at the tournament.
London-born centre half Caulker broke through at Tottenham, before moving to Cardiff and QPR, with spells at Liverpool (on loan), Dundee, Turkish side Alanyaspor and Fenerbahce.
Now on loan at Gaziantep in the Turkish Super Lig, Caulker's only England cap came against Sweden in a 2012 friendly, scoring a goal in a 4-2 defeat, having played every minute for Great Britain at the London Olympics earlier that year.
Back in 2013, a year after his England outing, former Scotland assistant manager Mark McGhee expressed an interest in Caulker switching allegiance to them, given his grandmother Jessie is Scottish, and called then-Scotland assistant Steven Reid in 2019 to express his keenness to play for them.
In October this year, Caulker attended a Sierra Leone training camp and played in an unofficial friendly against a Moroccan team of home-based players.
The delayed AFCON tournament in Cameroon is scheduled to start on January 9.
The Leone Stars are set to face defending champions Algeria, Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea in a tough-looking Group E.
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