Chelsea pair Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori will head to Southampton on Sunday with an extra spring in their step, following this week’s call-up to the England squad.
The Stamford Bridge youngsters have been in impressive form so far this term following their introduction to the first team by new Blues boss Frank Lampard.
But they’re both well known to Three Lions manager Gareth Southgate, who has had a close eye on them over the last few years during their days with England’s development teams.
“Tammy’s game is still developing, he’s still raw in certain areas of his game but he’s a player that gets into dangerous positions and scores goals,” said Southgate, who gave Abraham his England senior debut in a game with Germany in November 2017.
“That’s a wonderful quality to have. It’s great he’s breaking through at Premier League level now and he’s had some good loan spells which have been a good grounding for him.
“But he must feel really good about himself breaking into a top six team and delivering in the way he is.”
For Tomori, 21, it’s a first call into the senior team having previously excelled with England’s U21s, U20s and U19s over the last three years.
“He’s been in our development squads now for a couple of years,” added Southgate, who spent time with the U21s squad at their Euro Finals in Italy this summer.
“It’s been a good experience for him and he’s won at youth level which is important for us.
“He had an excellent loan spell at Derby last year so it’s still early stages for him in terms of his involvement in the Premier League, but he’s playing well and he’s got attributes that we think can convert really well into international football.
“We think it’s an opportunity to work more closely with him and for him to see how we play and the way we work day-to-day.
“It’s also a chance to see him defending against our forwards in training sessions and see how far he can go in this camp.”
Our clash with Montenegro on Thursday 14 November is the final qualifier at Wembley and is also England’s 1000th international game. Tickets are on sale at a variety of price points so make sure you’re there for a truly historic night!
TICKETS: ENGLAND V MONTENEGRO
