England Supporters Club

England squad named ahead of Malta and Slovenia games

Posted by Team England at 20:20 on Sunday 02 October 2016

Interim England manager Gareth Southgate has named his squad for this month’s 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia.

Marcus Rashford returns to the group after scoring a hat-trick on his debut for the Under-21s against Norway last month, while there is also a call-up for the uncapped Jesse Lingard.

Glen Johnson is included for the first time since the 2014 World Cup, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is back in the squad after a year's absence. Adam Lallana and Nathaniel Clyne miss out, having picked up injuries while playing for Liverpool this weekend.

"We've tried to keep some continuity from last month because my view would be that there are a lot of things that have been going right," Southgate told TheFA.com as he discussed his selection.

"We've had a few people unavailable through injury like Harry Kane and Jack Butland, and we've lost a couple over the weekend in Danny Drinkwater, Adam Lallana and Nathaniel Clyne while Luke Shaw isn't quite back fit yet. That's had a bearing on the squad.

"There are obviously a couple of players that I've worked with in the Under-21s with Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard, who we think are exciting young players who we wanted to put in this squad.

"It's obviously been a difficult week in a number of ways, however we are in a position now where it's important to get the squad named. I'm looking forward now to working with the players because it's important that we build on the performance and the result against Slovakia."

The squad will report to St. George's Park on Tuesday, ahead of taking on Malta at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. There is still limited ticketing availability for that game – book online at TheFA.com/Tickets.

England will then travel on to Ljubljana, where they face Slovenia on Tuesday 11 October.

The squad

Fraser Forster (Southampton), Joe Hart (Torino, loan from Manchester City), Tom Heaton (Burnley), Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Stoke City), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur), Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Michail Antonio (West Ham United), Jesse Lingard (Manchester United), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)