Gareth Southgate has named his England squad for the matches against Australia and Italy. Bukayo Saka has been included despite suffering a muscular injury during Arsenal’s Champions League defeat to Lens.
Raheem Sterling has again been snubbed, while West Ham star James Ward-Prowse is also left out. His club team-mate Jarrod Bowen has earned a recall, though, after scoring five goals in his first seven Premier League appearances of the season.
Aston Villa star Ollie Watkins has also been recalled. He scored his second hat-trick of the season in his side’s demolition of Brighton last weekend.
But the inclusion of Saka is a surprise to many. He went off in the first half against Lens and Mikel Arteta confirmed afterwards that it was a muscle problem.
Arteta said: “He tried to backheel the ball in the first half and felt something, it was something muscular and he was uncomfortable to carry on so we had to take him off. We don’t know anything more than that, obviously it was big enough not to allow him to continue to play the game and that’s obviously a worry for us.”
England play Australia in a friendly at Wembley on October 13. They then welcome Italy to the same venue in a Euro 2024 qualifier in a repeat of the 2021 final.
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