Unaware of this, Musa was doing his thing with his South Melbourne teammates last week when Emblen got through to tell him the door was going to open.
"I was actually at training and Neil just called, it was on a Wednesday night," Musa said on Saturday.
"He said, 'we're looking at calling you in'. They were just waiting to hear back on a couple of other players who might not be involved.
"Neil said he "didn't want to shock you with it on Friday".
It does not matter at all to Musa that both the New Zealanders and the South African side, who had 11 players withdraw from their original 18-man team for the Australasian tour, will be understrength.
This is a full international, at Mt Smart Stadium, on prime time television and he plans to make it count.
"I've played obviously the age group levels growing up and the All Whites is what you aim for playing in those teams.
"Playing for New Zealand A last year against Jordan, that was competitive and a good standard.
"It's a really young [All Whites] squad, hopefully we can perform on the day and hopefully I can get on the pitch and make the most of my opportunity, cement a place in the team."
After the disappointment of ending his time with the Fulham FC Under 21 team without a concrete English club offer to follow, Musa was delighted his decision to come home and play for Team Wellington in ASB Premiership led to the chance to join South Melbourne.
He was confident that moving to a now semi-professional club would not hinder his chances of further progression due to being out of immediate sight.
One of Australia's most famous clubs, South Melbourne has a loyal fan base bigger than many Hyundai A-League teams, and therefore a vast social media network, Musa said.
"With Facebook and Youtube and things like that, I'd got the exposure I needed to market myself and get back out there.
"We're smashing it this year, we're nine from nine. Hopefully we'll get our tenth straight [on Sunday].
"This [All Whites callup] just starts to happen when everything goes well."
