Despite a succession of excellent performances for Newcastle United, Anthony Gordon and Nick Pope have been left out of Gareth Southgate’s England team for this month’s Wembley double header.
Gordon has been in blistering form for United, and Eddie Howe stated he was “sure” the former Everton forward would be on Gareth Southgate’s radar, but he has been left out of England’s friendly against Australia and European Championship qualifier against Italy.
Nick Pope has been overlooked yet again, after keeping five consecutive clean sheets for Newcastle before of their 4-1 thrashing of PSG. Southgate has instead chosen Jordan Pickford, Sam Johnstone of Crystal Palace, and Aaron Ramsdale, despite the fact that he has lost his spot at Arsenal.
Callum Wilson is also out with a hamstring injury that has kept him out of Newcastle’s last two games. The sole Newcastle player in the squad is Kieran Trippier.
Southgate chose a team of 26 players, including uncapped Levi Colwill and Eddie Nketiah, as well as in-form attackers Ollie Watkins and Jarrod Bowen, who made their long-awaited returns.
Watkins had not been called up since March 2022, and he returned just days after Southgate saw him score a hat-trick in Aston Villa’s 6-1 triumph over Brighton. Bowen, who scored five goals in seven league games for West Ham, returns to the England team for the first time since September 2022.
Despite his promising start to life in east London, teammate James Ward-Prowse was not included.
Raheem Sterling was also notable by his absence, with Southgate skipping the 82-cap Chelsea striker for the September fixtures. Mason Mount is also out despite returning to Manchester United’s lineup.
John Stones returned from injury, and Bukayo Saka was chosen despite worries about his fitness, while Ben Chilwell, Eberechi Eze, and Callum Wilson were all ruled out.
Despite recurring worries about their playing time, Harry Maguire and Kalvin Phillips kept their spots, while Jordan Henderson stayed after transferring to Saudi Arabia.
Saka is still being evaluated by Arsenal manager Gareth Southgate ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League match against Manchester City, and his fitness will be monitored.
“He is still being assessed, they have got a big game this weekend and then there is another seven days before we play Australia and 10 days before we play Italy,” he stated. “So everyone will monitor everything.”
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