Southgate retains Abraham, Tomori in England’s 27-man squad for final qualifiers

Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori are still in England manager, Gareth Southgate’s 27-man squad for the final two Euro 2020 qualifiers against Montenegro and Kosovo later this month.

The Chelsea duo made the squad to the last international window, but while Abraham got a run out in one of the games, Tomori was not used, raising the hope that Tomori, whose patents are from Nigeria could still play for the Super Eagles.

That is still possible if the central defender is not picked in any of the two coming games. But the door is completely shut on Abraham as he has featured for the Three Lions in a competitive game.

In the latest squad, Southgate has recalled Liverpool midfielder, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who missed out in October, while Chelsea winger, Callum Hudson-Odoi is named for the first time since recovering from an Achilles injury. Aston Villa star Jack Grealish will have to wait a little longer for his chance. 

The Montenegro game will be England’s 1,000th senior men’s international. In celebration, every player will wear a shirt with their own unique ‘legacy number’, denoting their individual position among the 1,244 players to have represented the team over the last 147 years.

England missed the chance to secure early Euro 2020 qualification during the October international break, but just a point against Montenegro at Wembley on November 14 will do it.

Equally, if Kosovo failed to beat Czech Republic that same night, England will join Belgium, Italy, Russia, Poland, Ukraine and Spain at the final tournament, regardless of their own results.

The Euro 2020 group stage draw will take place in Bucharest on November 30, before the full line-up of competing nations is actually known. The first 20 teams will be the qualifying group winners and runners-up, with the last four to contest a playoff mini-tournament in March.

Assuming England qualify as expected – only a true disaster could prevent it now – they will automatically be drawn into Group D at Euro 2020, due to the way the unique continent-wide tournament has been organised.

The 27-man squad and their legacy numbers are (1170) Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), (1181) Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Liverpool), (1190) Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), (1196) Ross Barkley (Chelsea), (1202) John Stones (Manchester City), (1204) Fabian Delph (Everton), (1207) Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), (1213) Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), (1215) Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), (1216) Tom Heaton (Aston Villa) and (1222) Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid).

The others are (1223) Harry Maguire (Manchester United), (1224) Harry Winks (Tottenham Hotspur), (1225) Jordan Pickford (Everton), (1227) Tammy Abraham (Chelsea), (1228) Joe Gomez (Liverpool), (1233) Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), (1234) Nick Pope (Burnley), (1235) Ben Chilwell (Leicester City), (1236) Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), (1239) Callum Wilson (AFC Bournemouth), (1241) Declan Rice (West Ham United), (1242) Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea), (1243) Mason Mount (Chelsea), (1244) Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa), James Maddison (Leicester City) and Fikayo Tomori (Chelsea).