LEIGHTON Baines and Ledley King have been handed surprise call-ups to the England squad for Saturday's friendly match with Slovakia and the World Cup qualifier with Ukraine four days later on 1 April.
Baines has been watched closely by coach Fabio Capello in recent matches, and the Everton defender's impressive performances mean he has got the chance to act as understudy to England's first-choice left-back Wayne Bridge who has been sidelined with
a hamstring injury.
And despite not being able to train, King has been handed his first call-up during the Capello reign as the England coach takes a closer look at the Tottenham Hotspur man.
As expected, Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster has made the cut – also for the first time since Capello took charge.
Last week, the Italian spoke in glowing terms about Foster and said he was willing to make an exception to his unwritten rule to leave out players who are not playing regularly for their clubs.
Also involved is Aaron Lennon, who won the last of his nine caps against Andorra two years ago but who has been on a run of good form for Tottenham lately and was instrumental in their 1-0 win over Chelsea on Saturday afternoon.
But there was bad news for the Aston Villa pairing of Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor, neither of whom has managed to keep their places in the squad that last month suffered a friendly defeat to Spain in Seville.
As Carlton Cole of West Ham is among those who remain from that group, Capello is presumably concerned that the draining confidence at Villa Park in recent weeks is having an adverse effect on the pair.
With Wayne Rooney and high-flying Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard back in harness and available for the first time since the qualifying win in Belarus last October, and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand fit after missing the Seville reverse with a stomach bug, England should be at full strength this weekend.
Capello has already pledged to make maximum use of his six allotted substitutes against the Slovakians, in order to ensure the freshness of his players for the crunch clash against Ukraine at Wembley.
ENGLAND SQUAD (for matches against Slovakia and Ukraine): Foster (Manchester Utd), Green (West Ham), James (Portsmouth); Baines (Everton), A Cole (Chelsea) Ferdinand (Manchester Utd), Jagielka (Everton), Johnson (Portsmouth), King (Tottenham), Lescott (Everton), Terry (Chelsea), Upson (West Ham); Barry (Aston Villa), Beckham (LA Galaxy), Carrick (Manchester Utd), Downing (Middlesbrough), Gerrard (Liverpool), Lampard (Chelsea), Lennon (Tottenham), Wright-Phillips (Manchester City); C Cole (West Ham), Crouch (Portsmouth), Heskey (Aston Villa), Rooney (Manchester Utd).
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