Ryan Bertrand has been brought straight back into the England squad by Roy Hodgson after his return to action after injury.

Bertrand has forced his way back into the England squad at the tail end of last season alongside his selection as the best left back in the Premier League by his peers at the PFA, so it must have been a disappointment to him to miss the start of this season through injury and have to miss the earlier England games a month ago.

However now he has a great chance to stake his claim for a place in the squad for next summers European Championship finals with both of the main contenders for the left back berth out injured and the chances being that one of them, his predecessor at St Mary's Luke Shaw not being back from injury by the end of the season.

Roy Hodgson's squad contains four ex Saints in Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Clyne, Theo Walcott & Alex Oxlade Chamberlain as well as a first call up for Wnchester born Danny Ings.

The inclusion of Ings is a strange one in that he hs hardly been selected for Liverpool, starting only 2 Premier League games plus 2 as sub totaling a shade under only four hours action in the League. He does have a full game under his belt against Carlisle in the League cup plus 17 minutes in the Europa League, but he has hardly set the World light in any of these games, so it is a strange choice from the England manager.

Another strange one is Tottenham's Dele Alli, the 19 year old has a little experience from playing for MK Dons in League One both as a youth and being loaned back by Spurs last season after they signed him, but this season he has only started 3 games in the premier League for Spurs plus another 3 as sub, that equates to 5 hours football in total, is this all it takes to get an England cap these days ?

This is not an anti Tottenham rant, it is merely pointing out why people should be surprised that we fail in International tournaments so often when we hand out Engalnd caps willy nilly.

Photo: Action Images

SaintBrock added 14:18 - Oct 2 There is a tendency for people to think that Luke Shaw is so good that he is the automatic choice for LB in the England team. I don't agree. For sure he is a good wingback but youth aside he has his weaknesses that were always on show at SMS, like getting caught too far forward and then not being able to recover his position and he wasn't that good a defensive tackler in one-on-one situations either. Ryan Bertrand has been on chosen on merit not because others are incapacitated, he is better than Baines and as good as Shaw going forward, delivers a better final ball than both and is as defensively capable as Baines and certainly better than Shaw. He is probably the best LB in the country right now. So let's get behind our man, there must be something very special about a player who can come on for the full 90 minutes in his first game back and probably equal man of the match as well after such an horrendous injury and long time away.

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