Danny Rose said he thought Mauricio Pochettino was joking when he was named Tottenham captain for Sunday's FA Cup third-round draw with Leicester City.
Rose, 25, is the longest-serving member of Pochettino's Spurs squad, having arrived from Leeds United as a teenager in 2007, and he was handed the armband for the first time on his 107th appearance for the club, with regular captains Hugo Lloris and Harry Kane among the substitutes.
Pochettino has a history of pranks -- telling Rose he was being sold in August 2014, shortly before revealing he had actually received a maiden England call-up -- and the defender admitted he was unsure if his manager was being serious.
"It was a bit of a surprise. The manager only said an hour-and-a-half before kick off and I asked him if he was being serious! He said yes, so it was a proud moment for myself and my family," Rose told SpursTV.
"I'll hope there will be a few more games along the line where I can walk the team out, especially at White Hart Lane."
Rose was arguably Spurs' most energetic performer in the 2-2 draw, causing Leicester repeated problems with his marauding runs down the left flank, particularly in the first half when Christian Eriksen's opener was cancelled out by Foxes veteran Marcin Wasilewski.
The full-back said he felt inspired by Tottenham captains past and present, and that wearing the armband helped him raise his game.
"There's been Ledley [King], Daws [Michael Dawson] and obviously now we've got the best keeper in the league who is a No. 1 captain," he said.
"I was sat before the game trying to prepare myself and when I found out. I was given an extra incentive to do well and spur the lads on whenever I could."
Kane rescued a replay for Spurs in the final moments of the game after Leicester had taken the lead early in the second half through Shinji Okazaki.
Spurs will now play Leicester three times in four matches, with a high-stakes Premier League clash to follow on Wednesday, and Rose is expecting more of the same from the Foxes.
"We could do without the replay because we've got a lot of games coming up over the next two weeks but nevertheless we've done well not to lose the game," he added.
"We should expect a similar game [on Wednesday] -- obviously they have [Jamie] Vardy and [Riyad] Mahrez coming back in who have been outstanding this season, so they'll have a few key players coming back. So should we.
"The fans and the players should expect a similar game, with lots of possession and them trying to hit us on the counter-attack, but if we play as we did at Everton in the first half and how we did today in the first half, we can convert some chances, try to put the game to bed and close the gap on them to one point.
"We've got two winnable home games and we want to push ourselves up the league."