Ollie Watkins and Jarrod Bowen return to England squad for double-header

Ollie Watkins and Jarrod Bowen return to the England fold (Barrington Coombs/Steve Paston/PA)

Ollie Watkins and Jarrod Bowen have returned to the England set-up but there is no place for Raheem Sterling once again.

The penultimate camp of 2023 kicks off with a Wembley friendly against Australia before hosting Italy under the arch in a European Championship qualifier.

Gareth Southgate named a 26-man squad for the October double-header, with uncapped Levi Colwill and Eddie Nketiah again getting the nod as a pair of in-form forwards made their long-awaited returns.

He’s in. 😍 pic.twitter.com/XrX33YnrYf

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) October 5, 2023

Watkins has not been called up since March 2022 and returned days after Southgate watched the striker score a hat-trick in Aston Villa’s 6-1 win against Brighton.

Bowen returns to the England squad for the first time since September 2022 having scored five goals in seven league games for West Ham.

There was no place for team-mate James Ward-Prowse despite his fine start to life in east London.

Sterling was another conspicuous by his absence after Southgate overlooked the 82-cap Chelsea forward for September’s fixtures. Mason Mount is also out despite returning to action with Manchester United.

Here it is: your #ThreeLions squad for October! 👊

— England (@England) October 5, 2023

John Stones returned from injury and Bukayo Saka was selected despite fitness concerns, while Ben Chilwell, Eberechi Eze and Callum Wilson were ruled out.

Harry Maguire and Kalvin Phillips retained their place despite ongoing questions over their playing time, while Jordan Henderson also remained after moving to Saudi Arabia.

Boss Southgate said Saka is still being assessed ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League game with Manchester City and his fitness will be monitored.

Arsenal star Bukayo Saka is an injury doubt for England (Nick Potts/PA)

“He is still being assessed, they have got a big game this weekend and then there is another seven days before we play Australia and 10 days before we play Italy,” he said. “So everyone will monitor everything.”

Southgate said he did not speak to Sterling ahead of his latest omission.

“No, we spoke before the last squad,” he added. “We have been happy with the wide players and performances in the last four games, clearly we have a settled team.”