Sturridge and Rodwell get England call-ups

DANIEL STURRIDGE and Jack Rodwell were last night handed their first England call-ups by Fabio Capello for the friendlies with Spain and Sweden.

The pair have both been elevated from Stuart Pearce’s U21 squad after excelling for Chelsea and Everton respectively this season.

As expected, John Terry is also named, whilst Manchester United duo Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney are omitted from a 25-man squad. There is also a return for Aston Villa’s in-form Gabriel Agbonlahor, at the expense of Andy Carroll, who has struggled for consistency at Liverpool this season.

Reds full-back Glen Johnson returns from injury, forcing Manchester City’s Micah Richards out of Capello’s squad.

Joleon Lescott is back too, with Ashley Young the fourth member of the squad that faced Montenegro last month to miss out, this time through injury. As usual, there was no captain named, and it remains open to debate whether Terry will wear the armband against the world champions this weekend.

However, Capello has insisted such a move would be for footballing reasons only, given he has already decided Terry is “innocent until proven guilty” of the racism allegations that have been levelled against him and are now the subject of both police and FA investigations.

England squad to face Spain and Sweden: Hart (Man City), Carson (Bursaspor), Stockdale (Ipswich); G Johnson (Liverpool), Jones (Man Utd), Cahill (Bolton), Terry (Chelsea), Cole (Chelsea), Baines (Everton), Jagielka (Everton), Lescott (Man City), Walker (Tottenham); Lampard (Chelsea), Rodwell (Everton), Downing (Liverpool), Barry (Man City), A Johnson (Man City), Milner (Man City), Parker (Tottenham), Walcott (Arsenal); Bent (Aston Villa), Sturridge (Chelsea), Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Zamora (Fulham), Welbeck (Man Utd).