Ben Brereton Diaz's Chile World Cup dream and Alexis Sanchez's helping hand

The story of Ben Brereton Diaz's rapid rise is one that never ceases to amaze.

A year ago the 22-year-old was hardly setting the world alight at Blackburn Rovers. He was flitting between the bench and starting line-up for the Championship side.

Fast forward 12 months and he is one of the top scorers outside the Premier League, a fully-fledged international and is dreaming of reaching the World Cup in Qatar next year.

The story of his surprise call-up by Chile is now well-known and his improving numbers for Blackburn show that his game has improved rapidly in the space of a year.

This week marks another important one for La Roja. They are hoping to finish in one of the top-four spots in South American qualifying that guarantees a spot in Qatar.

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Finishing fifth would mean an inter-regional play-off.

They beat Paraguay 1-0 last week and in the early hours of Wednesday morning (12.15am) they host third-placed Ecuador.

Brereton Diaz picked up a booking in the Paraguay encounter so is banned for the latest outing. He has spoken of how the group have made him feel welcome, partly due to the fact a clutch of the squad have experience of playing in England.

Brereton Diaz said: "I still get 'man on' shouted at me during matches.

"Usually it's by Alexis Sanchez who remembers it from when he played at Arsenal!

"It's been a great experience for me. I'm playing with some brilliant team-mates and off-the-field there has been some cool stuff to do."

Those off-field excursions include starring in numerous adverts on Chilean TV, promoting soft drinks and even underwear.

"The underwear campaign is interesting. I didn't have to strip off!" he added.

Whilst those non-football activities have thrust Brereton Diaz into the limelight he has been backing it up with solid performances for club and country.

His breakthrough period in last summer's Copa America laid the foundations for a strong season with Rovers, whom he joined permanently in 2019. Remarkably he has already scored more league goals this season (13) than he had in his previous three full campaigns (10).

His tally is only bettered in the Championship by Fulham's goal machine Aleksandar Mitrovic, with 20.

Unlike Europe's qualifying groups, which come to a close this week, South America's format runs up until March. That means plenty more air miles being racked up by the Stoke-born forward - not that he will care one jot if it results in him being part of the squad that goes to Qatar in a year's time.

He added: "To get to a World Cup would be incredible.

"What a stage - it's everyone's dream and it's in our hands."