Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins gets England recall

Watkins has been included in Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad for upcoming matches against Australia and Italy after scoring four goals in his last two Premier League matches.

Southgate was in attendance to see the 27-year-old score a hat-trick in last Saturday’s 6-1 thumping of Brighton. That has led to Watkins getting his first Three Lions call since March, 2022.

But there is no place for Konsa, who had been touted for a possible maiden international call-up due his own impressive form.

Watkins has replaced Callum Wilson in the squad with Southgate admitting there were concerns of the Newcastle striker’s availabilty.

He continued: “Ollie has started the season well. He has hit a bit of scoring form in the last couple of weeks.

“You have to be careful of that, you can’t go on recency bias when you are looking at selection. But he is in good form and is obviously on a high.

“He has bene with us before. We know his personality and his character around the group. He is playing well for a team who are very well coached and the team are in a good moment.”

England host Australia at Wembley in a friendly on Friday, October 13, before welcoming Italy for a Euro 2024 qualifier on October 17.