I look back and think 'how did I get here?' - I'm playing in the Premier League and I have just got an England call-up

Shorey, 26, is set to make his debut against Brazil at the new Wembley after a single season in the Premiership.

"I have got a chance with England and it is great to be involved," he said.

"I started at Leyton Orient and have come through the divisions, Reading have had a great season and it's all happened at once, it's been meteoric."

A measure of how things have changed for Shorey can be found in his diary, which provides proof of how everything is happening at once.

Friday night was pencilled in as a stag-do prior to his marriage on Saturday to fiancee Emily and a subsequent honeymoon to Mauritius.

"We booked the wedding last year and I didn't have a clue anything like this would happen," said Shorey.

"If the game had been on Saturday we would have had to postpone the wedding - but don't tell the missus that!

"I'll play the Brazil game, shoot straight home afterwards, get up on Saturday morning, get married at 1.30pm, spend the day there and then join back up on Sunday night."

That means instead of sun-kissed beaches in the Indian Ocean, Shorey will be going on a honeymoon with a difference to Estonian capital Tallinn for a vital Euro 2008 qualifying match.

"This doesn't happen every day so you have to just try and enjoy it. Emily has been very understanding and supportive although a bit stressed lately," he added.

The opportunity is a deserved reward for a dependable defender who has won rave reviews this season.

Having played in all four divisions since starting out as an apprentice at Orient in League Two in 1998, he looked right at home in the Premiership.

He has real pace and Shorey's surges up the flank are matched by a good delivery and a mean shot, which is also a threat from set-pieces.

NICKY SHOREY FACTFILE Age: 26 (Born: 19 Feb 1981) Leyton Orient (1998-2001) 16 games; no goals Reading (2001-present) 258 games; 10 goals It is 100 years since England last selected a Reading player. Herbert Smith, who played in 1907, was also a left-back

And having been a key component of Reading's successful campaign, in which he played 37 of their 38 games to help Steve Coppell's side to an eighth-placed finish, he looked equally at home in England B's win over Albania.

Shorey's cross from the left led to the opening goal and his all-round performance persuaded coach Steve McClaren to call him up to the full squad.

Settling into his new surroundings has been helped by a few familiar faces in the squad and Friday's defence has something of a feel of a reunion to it.

"John Terry and I are from the same area," Shorey revealed.

"We played against each other as youngsters. He played for a team called Senrab and I played for a rival side called Comet.

"His team used to beat us most of the time and I know Ledley King as well from those days. We're all from the same part of Essex."

After three years at Orient Shorey joined the Royals, who were then in League One, in a �25,000 deal in 2001 which Alan Pardew still rates as his best pound-for-pound signing.

Promotion to the Championship followed a year later, although Shorey's progress received a potentially career-destroying setback when doctors considered amputating his foot.

"Two or three years ago I was in hospital for a couple of weeks with a foot infection. I was on a drip for three months," he recounted.

"The foot was in a really bad way at the time and I was out for quite a while.

"I don't know how it happened, but it wasn't in a game. There was even some mention of an amputation being a possibility at the time.

"It was quite a serious injury, but thankfully I came through."

After that, the busy next five days of debut, wedding and Euro qualifier should be a breeze before the relaxation of a summer off and that delayed honeymoon to Mauritius.