Barkley recalled to England squad for World Cup Qualifier

Thanks to the tutelage of Ronald Koeman, Ross Barkley has enjoyed one of the finest stretches of his career in terms of performance on the field recently, and has been rewarded for it by England manager Gareth Southgate.

Barkley has not made an appearance since a 27 minute cameo in a May 2016 friendly against Australia. The Evertonian was included in the England squad for Euro 2016, but was the only player on the roster to not see a minute of play.

Southgate was at Goodison Park last weekend to watch Barkley in action for the Blues against West Brom in a 3-0 win, a game that the midfielder starred in. For Barkley, it’s a great opportunity to take the next step in his promising career and cement his status as one of England’s finest young players. He has 22 appearances with 2 goals and 3 assists in his international career.

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

Everton fans will be hopeful that Southgate gives Barkley a prominent role, and, of course, that he returns with a clean bill of health. England play Germany in Dortmund on March 22nd in a friendly, and then at Wembley on March 26th in a World Cup qualifier against Lithuania.

The squad in full is as follows:

GK: Fraser Forster, Joe Hart, Tom Heaton

DF: Ryan Bertrand, Gary Cahill, Nathaniel Clyne, Michael Keane, Phil Jones, John Stones, Luke Shaw, Chris Smalling, Kyle Walker

MF: Eric Dier, Adam Lallana, Michail Antonio, Ross Barkley, Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard, Jake Livermore, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Nathan Redmond, Raheem Sterling, James Ward-Prowse

FW: Jermain Defoe, Marcus Rashford, Jamie Vardy