Fabio Capello today left David Beckham out of his first England
squad to play Switzerland on February 6. Instead there were
call-ups to the provisional senior squad for the Aston Villa winger
Gabriel Agbonlahor, his team-mate Curtis Davies and the Wigan
striker Emile Heskey.
New manager Capello harboured reservations about Beckham's match
fitness, with the former captain's last competitive game having
been for his country against Croatia in November. The midfielder
had been training with Arsenal recently to maintain his fitness,
but this failed to win over Capello, who is understood to have
informed Beckham of his decision in a telephone call yesterday
evening.
The exclusion of Beckham leaves him still searching for his
100th cap, although Capello told Beckham that he has not ruled out
a future recall for the 32-year-old.
Paul Robinson is also left out of the 30-man provisional squad,
with Wigan's Chris Kirkland joining Scott Carson and David James in
the goalkeeping department. Tottenham's Aaron Lennon and Tom
Huddlestone were also omitted from Capello's senior line-up,
joining their team-mate Jamie O'Hara in Stuart Pearce's Under-21
squad to face the Republic of Ireland.
England provisional squad for the friendly against
Switzerland: S Carson (Aston Villa), D James (Portsmouth),
C Kirkland (Wigan); W Bridge (Chelsea), W Brown (Manchester
United), A Cole (Chelsea), C Davies (Aston Villa), R Ferdinand
(Manchester United) G Johnson (Portsmouth), L King (Tottenham), J
Lescott (Everton), M Richards (Manchester City), N Shorey
(Reading), M Upson (West Ham), J Woodgate (Tottenham); G Barry
(Aston Villa), D Bentley (Blackburn), M Carrick (Manchester
United), J Cole (Chelsea), S Downing (Middlesbrough), S Gerrard
(Liverpool), O Hargreaves (Manchester United), J Jenas (Tottenham),
S Wright-Phillips (Chelsea), A Young (Aston Villa); G Agbonlahor
(Aston Villa), P Crouch (Liverpool), E Heskey (Wigan), M Owen
(Newcastle), W Rooney (Manchester United).
England Under-21 squad to play the
Republic of Ireland: J Hart (Manchester City), T Heaton
(Manchester United), J Lewis (Peterborough), C Gardner (Aston
Villa), M Mancienne (Chelsea), J Mattock (Leicester City), N Onuoha
(Manchester City), R Shawcross (Stoke), S Taylor (Newcastle), D
Wheater (Middlesbrough), L Cattermole (Middlesbrough), T
Huddlestone (Tottenham), A Johnson (Middlesbrough), A Lennon
(Tottenham), J Milner (Newcastle), F Muamba (Birmingham), M Noble
(West Ham), Jamie O'Hara (Tottenham), A Surman (Southampton), C
Jerome (Birmingham), L Moore (Aston Villa), J Vaughan (Everton), T
Walcott (Arsenal).
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