Manager Southgate keeps faith with Henderson, Maguire in England squad

LONDON: Coach Gareth Southgate has kept faith with two senior players when naming his 26-man squad for England's two games during the forthcoming international break.

Southgate included Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson in the squad, despite Maguire remaining out of favour at Manchester United and without an appearance so far this season and Henderson opting to move to Saudi Arabia, which represents a less competitive competition than the Premier League.

The coach has handed a debut call-up to Chelsea defender Levi Colwill and recalled AC Milan's Fikayo Tomori and Chelsea's Ben Chilwell, who missed the World Cup, while Arsenal's in-form Eddie Nketiah also gets the nod, reports Xinhua.

"Eddie Nketiah and Levi Colwill are two young players who are doing very well. Levi had some time with us in the summer," Southgate, who said he was looking for consistency after having beaten Malta 4-0 and North Macedonia 7-0 in June, was quoted as saying by the local media.

"Two really good performances, so I didn't really want to move from the squad we had that day," said Southgate.

Some big names to miss out include Chelsea's Raheem Sterling, with the coach saying he "understood perfectly" why the forward would be unhappy.

"We were really pleased with the group. To bring Raheem back in, we've got to leave somebody else out. And on the back of those games, I didn't think anybody in this group of attacking players warrants being left out," commented the coach, who also omitted West Ham's duo of James Ward-Prowse and Jarrod Bowen despite good starts to the season.