The 210cm giant joined teammates Joe Ingles and Jacob Holmes en route to the Gold Coast for an eight-day national selection camp on Friday ahead of the Boomers’ tour to Europe later this month.

Burston received the late call-up to camp after veteran Chris Anstey withdrew from national commitments, saying he was incapable of meeting the high physical demands of a training camp followed by an international tour and a three-test series.

“It was definitely a shock but it’s an opportunity I’ll take with both hands,” Burston said.

“It’s not often you get these sort of opportunities and I’m very excited.

“I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain so I’m going to give it my best shot and see how I go. I’d love to make the tour and I’m just going to give it my all.”

Despite the last-minute invitation, Burston will enter camp confident of his fitness and recent form.

“I haven’t really had that much time to think about it but I know I’ve got a fair bit of confidence going in to camp from the way I’ve been training, and the body’s been holding up over the last few weeks of the pre-season so to be able to get through that and still be in a pretty good position, I’ll take that sort of confidence to the Gold Coast,” he said.

Burston’s call-up comes after his 2006/07 NBL season was cut short by injury. After months on the sidelines, he returned to on-court action last month via the ABA with the Waverley Falcons.

“Obviously I haven’t really been able to prove myself for the last couple of years but I’ve been working hard this off-season, and in the last couple of weeks at training I’ve shown that I’ve been doing the hard work and been travelling pretty well so it’s good that I could get the call-up as the result of that,” he said.

The star centre said the inclusion of three Crazy John’s South Dragons players in the 18-man national line-up was a good omen for the season ahead.

“It’s a good sign for the Dragons with only two other teams in the league with multiple players in the Boomers squad, and it’s good to have Joe and Jacob there as good friends as well.

“I can’t imagine it being an easy week so it’s good to have good friends around.”

The full squad, announced late last week, includes David Andersen (CSKA Moscow), Ian Crosswhite (Sydney Kings), Adam Gibson (Brisbane Bullets), Wade Helliwell (Siena, Italy), Russell Hinder (Sydney Kings), Luke Kendall (Sydney Kings), Alex Loughton (Perth Wildcats), Sam Mackinnon (Brisbane Bullets), Darnell Mee (Cairns Taipans), Brad Newley (Houston Rockets, USA), Damien Ryan (Perth Wildcats), Glen Saville (Sydney Kings), Luke Schenscher (Portland Trailblazers, USA), Jason Smith (Sydney Kings) and Mark Worthington (Sydney Kings).

The 12 players selected from the camp will go on to contest the three-game FIBA Oceania qualifying series against New Zealand in August.