Manchester United’s 22-year-old forward Jesse Lingard has been called up for England’s friendly against France at Wembly on tuesday.
The French Football Federation (FFF) in a statement confirmed, both the teams have decided to go ahead with the fixture despite the Paris terror attacks that killed around 130 people on Friday night. However, England supporters are ready to show full solidarity with the French supporters for the international friendly match at Wembley Stadium.
Lingard joined the national squad today as Roy Hodgson looks to bolster the attacking line after two players were forced out with injury.
The midfielder’s United teammate Michael Carrick was carried off in the last minute of England’s defeat to Spain. Carrick has eventually returned to Old Trafford and will be out of England’s last game of the year.
In the meantime Jamie Vardy after sitting out the Friday match in Alicante following a knock picked up in Leicester City’s Premier League clash against Watford last weekend will also miss the friendly match with the French.
England returned on Saturday and according to the plan Hodgson’s men will again meet at their Hertfordshire training base on Sunday evening.
Hodgson earlier revealed Carrick has ligament damage and the injury is not looking good for the 34-year-old veteran midfielder.
“Michael has got a severely twisted ankle which normally means ligament damage. We won’t know that of course until he’s had an X-ray or a scan, but it doesn’t look good.”
It will be Lingard’s debut appearance with the senior team. However, the former Birmingham and Brighton loanee has played 11 matches for the under-21 squad. He made his debut with the U21 team as a substitute against Scotland when Hodgson was appointed manager of the team in August 2013.
Lingard has make his way into Louis van Gaal’s starting eleven in recent weeks and was rewarded well for his consistent performance recently as he scored against West Brom at Old Trafford during United’s 2-0 win.