Rashford, Lingard called up

MARCUS Rashford and the uncapped Jesse Lingard spearhead interim manager Gareth Southgate's five recalls in his first England squad, with Glen Johnson a surprise selection.

Manchester United teenager Rashford fired a hat-trick on his under-21s debut last month after being omitted from the now-disgraced former manager Sam Allardyce's sole England squad.

The 18-year-old might be back in England's senior ranks under Southgate, but the caretaker boss still hopes the United flyer will feature in next summer's European Under-21 Championship.

Southgate also named Ryan Bertrand and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in his 23-man squad for World Cup qualifying clashes with Malta and Slovenia.

"Everybody's been focusing on the things that maybe can improve with the team but I think a lot of things have been going right," Southgate told FATV.

"That continuity is important. We had a few people unavailable through injury, and we lost a couple over the weekend. That's had a bearing."

Danny Drinkwater, Adam Lallana and Nathaniel Clyne all suffered injuries in the weekend's Premier League programme, leading to the brunt of Southgate's changes from Allardyce's only England squad.

Luke Shaw has failed to recover from injury and illness, so also missed out, with Harry Kane continuing to be sidelined by ankle ligament trouble.

England squad -

Forster (Southampton), Hart (Torino), Heaton (Burnley); Bertrand (Southampton), Cahill (Chelsea), Jagielka (Everton), Johnson (Stoke), Rose (Tottenham), Smalling (Man Utd), Stones (Man City), Walker (Tottenham); Dier (Tottenham), Henderson (Liverpool) Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal) Alli (Tottenham), Rooney (Man Utd), Antonio (West Ham), Lingard (Man Utd), Sterling (Man City), Walcott (Arsenal), Rashford (Man Utd), Sturridge (Liverpool), Vardy (Leicester).