Roy Hodgson has called up the uncapped Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard to his England squad for Tuesday’s friendly against France after losing Michael Carrick and Jamie Vardy to injury.
Carrick has returned to Carrington to have an ankle injury, sustained in Friday’s 2-0 defeat to Spain, examined while Vardy, ruled out of the match in Alicante with a minor hip problem, has been released back to Leicester City for treatment. Lingard has impressed for the under-21s, for whom he has 11 caps, but has played only 193 minutes of Premier League football to date for United, the club he joined at the age of seven.
To that end, his elevation represents a surprise. The United manager, Louis van Gaal, recently suggested he was not yet ready to represent his country at senior level. “I would say it is too much too early,” he said after the recent win over West Bromwich Albion. “We have to wait to see if he is consistent because he is more or less the same age as Memphis Depay.”
Norwich City’s Nathan Redmond was unavailable having been withdrawn from the Under-21 squad through injury. Wilfried Zaha, who has two caps and has been in impressive form for Crystal Palace, has not represented his country for over two years and appears to be out of contention.
Lingard, 23 next month, linked up with the squad at their Hertfordshire base on Sunday as they began preparations for the game against France, which will go ahead despite Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris. The defeat by Spain was England’s first since the World Cup group game against Uruguay in São Paulo in June 2014 – Hodgson’s side had gone 15 matches unbeaten, and completed qualification for Euro 2016 with a perfect record. Yet their confidence has apparently not been dented by the defeat.
“There’s no reason for any confidence to drain out,” said Gary Cahill, who will return to the side to partner John Stones in central defence. “The manager is going to change up the team over the games, get players game-time so there’s that element to it, but there’s no reason whatsoever why we should be low on confidence after one game. We’ve had a great run and that was our first defeat.
“But if we had won the two games [against Spain and France] then we’d be told we can go on and win the Euros. If we lost them both, then it would be the other way. These are the tough tests. Spain was the first of them. I agree the teams we’re playing now are big teams and if we want to do anything in the summer, then we’re going to have to compete. We’re not the finished article and this was a big test.
“These games will be a good marker as to where we are. But there’s no reason for anyone to lose any sort of confidence because the performance levels and the way we have approached the qualifying campaign and playing since the World Cup has been positive. I don’t think we were outclassed against Spain. We were in the game. Now, playing at Wembley will be another opportunity to test ourselves against a big team.”
The likes of Nathaniel Clyne, Kieran Gibbs and Jonjo Shelvey are expected to feature from the start, with Harry Kane and Wayne Rooney to be paired up front. The partnership has had only 32 minutes of competitive action together – against Switzerland at Wembley in September – though the strikers did play the last 17 minutes of the game in Alicante. “Wayne’s a world-class player and we get on well,” Kane said. “We play well when we’re together but selection is down to the boss. I’m happy to play wherever when called upon.
“People need to stay patient. We’re not going to win every game: we’re playing these teams for a reason, to get experience. We’ve got to stay confident. We know what we want to do and what we want to achieve, and now we’ve got another tough test against France, which we want to win. We’ve got to keep doing things right, don’t panic and go from there.”
