Throughout 2001, there were calls from the British media that Dunn should be called up to the England squad. He was considered to be in the England squad for the FIFA World Cup but did not make the final cut. Three months later on 3 September 2002, Dunn was called up to the England for the first time and made his first cap until 7 September 2002, when he replaced Steven Gerrard against Portugal at half-time. This turns out to be his only England appearance. Following this, there were calls for England to call Dunn to the squad but no avail, as he said: "I know that I should’ve had more caps. I truly wish that I'd knuckled down at times and pushed myself that bit more. I'm really proud that I played professionally for my country, it's what I started out wanting to do but there's always that little bugbear that I could and maybe should’ve had more caps."