Brighton ace makes England squad alongside West Ham and Aston Villa stars

Dunk, 31, has been in fine form for Albion of late and featured for England in the 2-0 friendly win against Scotland. Dunk was one of the best defenders on the itch at Hampden Park and has firmly put himself in contention to start the upcoming matches with a Wembley friendly against Australia before hosting Italy under the arch in a European Championship qualifier.

Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins and West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen have returned to the England set-up but there is no place for Chelsea attacker Raheem Sterling once again.

Gareth Southgate named a 26-man squad for the October double-header, with uncapped Levi Colwill and Eddie Nketiah again getting the nod as a pair of in-form forwards made their long-awaited returns.

Watkins has not been called up since March 2022 and returned days after Southgate watched the striker score a hat-trick in Aston Villa’s 6-1 win against Brighton.

Bowen returns to the England squad for the first time since September 2022 having scored five goals in seven league games for West Ham.

There was no place for team-mate James Ward-Prowse despite his fine start to life in east London. Mason Mount is also out despite returning to action with Manchester United.

John Stones returned from injury and Bukayo Saka was selected despite fitness concerns, while Ben Chilwell, Eberechi Eze and Callum Wilson were ruled out.

Harry Maguire and Kalvin Phillips retained their place despite ongoing questions over their playing time, while Jordan Henderson also remained after moving to Saudi Arabia.

Goalkeepers: Sam Johnstone, Jordan Pickford, Aaron Ramsdale. Defenders: Levi Colwill, Lewis Dunk, Marc Guehi, Harry Maguire, John Stones, Fikayo Tomori, Kieran Trippier, Kyle Walker, Trent Alexander-Arnold

Midfielders: Jude Bellingham, Conor Gallagher, Jordan Henderson, Kalvin Phillips, Declan Rice. Forwards: Jarred Bowen, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Harry Kane, James Maddison, Eddie Nketiah, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka, Ollie Watkins.