Truro City midfielder Ben Starkie says he is "buzzing" to be recalled to the Tanzania squad after recovering from injury.

The 24-year-old earned a first call up since June 2024 having missed much of last season with a serious hamstring injury.

Tanzania will play two matches against Nigeria in their Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers later this month.

"I'm really happy with it given the past season-and-a-half," he told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"I joined Truro, got injured and spent the whole season out, so it's nice to be back in and around the call-ups."

Starkie, who qualifies to play for the Tafia Stars through his mother, won the last of his four caps in a friendly against Indonesia more than two years ago.

His highest-profile appearance came in a friendly against Egypt in January 2024, where Mohammed Salah and Omar Marmoush were up against him.

"The love for football in Africa is amazing," Starkie added.

"You get there and there are fans at the airport when the team's landing back or flying to the game and there's just a buzz around it.

"In camp the vibes are always high and everyone's just really nice, we've all got a job to do there and there's a lot of togetherness in the squad so it's always been a really, really good experience each time I've been able to go on international duty."

The former Leicester City academy player has spent his entire career in non-league football in England.

It is a far cry from his opponents in the Nigeria squad, many of whom play in the top leagues in Europe.

"They've got a lot of big players in their team," added Starkie, who has scored one in 11 National League South appearances this season for a Truro side who are a point off the top of the table after 14 games.

"So it'll be a test for us, but also we have a good squad, we've got a lot of players playing at high levels in Europe and at the last Afcon the squad got to the last 16, which was the first for Tanzania, which is massive.

"It shows that we can compete with the top teams in Africa, so it should be a good two games against them which will just give us a gauge going towards Afcon to see how all that goes."

And he is hopeful that the form he has shown to get a call-up can continue when he returns from international duty later this month.

Having joined the Tinners ahead of their first-ever season in the National League, a campaign that ended in relegation, he wants to try and help them return to the fifth tier of English football at the first time of asking.

"We've hit the ground running and we've been bringing in very, very good results," he said.

"I think everyone's really together this season, everyone knows what we have to do and also I think as a team we're a lot more relaxed, we're very focused and we're going into every single game confident that we can win the majority of the games that we'll play this season.

"I feel like we've got the mindset that we can beat everyone in the league and hopefully win the league.

"We've had a very good start to the season and coming into the Christmas period being where we are in the league, so we just need to keep it up and keep it going."