Wayne Rooney has been named in the England squad to face Scotland in a friendly match at Wembley next Wednesday.
The Manchester United forward has not played a single game during pre-season due to a succession of niggly injuries but may yet get some game time at Wembley as Roy Hodgson looks to try out some new faces for England ahead of crucial World Cup qualifiers.
Hodgson was not overly concerned by Rooney’s lack of game time ahead of the game next week.
“He is not fully match fit, that’s pretty obvious, but the important thing for me was to have him with us in the squad and to assess how many minutes he can play in the game.
“We just have to accept that it’s not ideal that he hasn’t played the minutes we would have liked in pre-season, but it’s very good he is able to join us and be available to play the minutes we think he can play.”
One young player in the squad who may also get some game time is United winger Wilfried Zaha. He played for 7 minutes against Sweden in Stockholm last November and was part of England’s Under 21 squad that failed to get out of their group at the 2013 European Championship in June.
Southampton’s Rickie Lambert was called up for the first time at the age of 31, on the same day that his partner gave birth to their child.
England squad:
Goalkeepers: Ben Foster, Joe Hart, John Ruddy
Defenders: Leighton Baines, Gary Cahill, Ashley Cole, Phil Jagielka, Glen Johnson, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Kyle Walker
Midfielders: Michael Carrick, Tom Cleverley, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Jack Wilshere, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Ashley Young, Wilfried Zaha,
Strikers: Jermain Defoe, Rickie Lambert, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck