Newcastle United’s Anthony Gordon and Nick Pope have withdrawn from England’s squad to face Serbia and Albania.
While Gordon was ruled out of the Magpies’ trip to Brentford with a hip injury, Pope had to be withdrawn in the second-half after suffering concussion.
Eddie Howe hinted post-match that the duo would be ruled out of international duty and now their withdrawals have been confirmed by the FA.
Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah and Man City’s reserve goalkeeper James Trafford have been called up by Thomas Tuchel ahead of Thursday’s World Cup Qualifier against Serbia at Wembley.
Chalobah, previously managed by the German at Stamford Bridge, earns his first call-up since making his debut during the Three Lions’ 3-1 defeat against Senegal in June.
Trafford is meanwhile yet to make his England bow despite being included in all four of Tuchel’s previous squads.
Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi has joined up with his international team-mates at Tottenham Hotspur’s north London training ground today despite being ruled out of his club’s derby against Brighton on Sunday.
The 25-year-old ‘bruised a foot bone’ in the dying embers of the Eagles’ clash with AZ Alkmaar on Thursday and hobbled away from Selhurst Park on crutches.
Oliver Glasner later admitted ‘he can’t even walk’, but Guehi is set to be assessed this week by Tuchel’s coaching staff and remains a doubt for the Serbia game.
The German’s squad announcement on Friday saw a number of Premier League stars, who were included in October’s squad, omitted this time around.
Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Morgan Gibbs-White all missed out, as did Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins.
England’s manager said the striker’s absence was fitness related, while stressing that the other four lost their places having been ‘outperformed’ since the last international break.
‘Myles was a very good team-mate and played for us in the last camp in the World Cup qualifier in Riga, so was Ruben Loftus-Cheek, so was Morgan Gibbs-White and James Trafford,’ Tuchel said.
‘But I said last time there is a component to it that it’s about competition and performance and the door is always open for guys who perform on a regular and high level.
‘Myles, Ruben and Morgan got out-performed by Nico O’Reilly, Alex Scott, Nick Pope and Jude in their positions.
‘Myles simply needs more starts, more minutes. Now came a time when Nico O’Reilly had so many starts in that position, so he is slightly ahead for this camp.’
Tuchel meanwhile chose to recall Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham, whose omission from October’s squad left waves of English fans shocked.
The 22-year-old was left out as he recovered from a shoulder injury, despite already making his LaLiga return.
Yet Bellingham will feature for England this week alongside Phil Foden, who’s also earned a recall.
Tuchel said: ‘Jude has the edge which is a very good thing because you need a certain edge to reach the heights that he reached and I think we all need to help him, and to encourage him, or to create an environment that he can live this edge towards the opponent, towards the goals that we are building as a team. That is the main target.
‘It is now necessary that we provide an environment and he lives up to this environment, to provide this edge for us in a positive way, and win football games.’
Asked about his decision to drop the duo last month, the boss added: ‘I think it was more of a message to the guys who were in camp rather than a message for Jude because there was no need for that, for the guys to keep their place even if a guy like Jude, like Phil, like other big names are knocking on the door and claiming their right to be back which is their right to claim that.
‘The message is now, make sure you keep this thing going and make sure you accelerate the thing because we have something going here, we are building something, we are super-excited that you are back but the message is – contribute to it.
‘But yeah, there is competition. And the players will know camp by camp where they compete. If you use the example that we bring four number-10s in. Because all four individually deserve to be in camp. And then we have four on the number-10 position but only one left-winger, for example. This does not make sense.’
