Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins and West Brom goalkeeper Sam Johnstone received their first England call-ups on Thursday ahead of three World Cup qualifiers.

England manager Gareth Southgate has named a 26-man squad for this month’s triple-header against San Marino, Albania and Poland.

Leeds striker Patrick Bamford had been widely tipped for a call-up but Southgate has turned to Watkins, who has impressed since joining Villa from Brentford last year.

“Bamford was very close. There’s a number of positions in this squad that have been really close calls and we felt we wanted an extra striker,” Southgate said.

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of The Times of Malta.

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