THERE will be five players from North-East clubs on England Under-21s duty this month.
Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Sunderland are all represented in Aidy Boothroyd's 26-man squad for the Cyrille Regis International with Romania and a Euro qualifier against Ukraine.
Boro pair Jack Harrison (on loan from Manchester City) and Dael Fry are joined by Newcastle United goalkeeper Freddie Woodman, who is on loan at Aberdeen, in the squad.
While Sunderland duo Ovie Ejaria and Jake Clarke-Salter, who are on loan from Liverpool and Chelsea respectively, are also included after playing parts in last summer's Under-20s World Cup triumph.
England Under-21s sit on top of their qualifying group for next year's European Championships approaching the half-way point of the campaign.
But before facing Ukraine at Bramall Lane on March 27 in a qualifier they will face Romania at Molineux on March 24 in a game which will be a tribute to former England, West Bromwich Albion and Wolves striker Regis, who passed away earlier this year.
Boothroyd has been able to call upon a squad featuring plenty of experience, as well as including new faces Ejaria and Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon.
There’s also a return to the squad for Spurs midfielder Harry Winks after he missed November’s game through injury, while striker Tammy Abraham is back in the group after featuring in the senior squad last time out.
“It’s been a good start to our new Euro campaign," said Boothroyd , ahead of next week's meet at St George’s Park.
"We’ve got 13 points from the five games, a five-point lead at the top of our group and after analysing all of those games from different areas, we still think we could be better, so that’s a real positive.
"We’ll now be working hard to make sure we keep improving on our games so far and we’ve got two matches this month against Romania and Ukraine to try and do that."
England U21s squad:
Angus Gunn - Norwich City (loan from Manchester City)
Dean Henderson - Shrewsbury Town (loan from Manchester United)
Freddie Woodman - Aberdeen (loan from Newcastle United)
Trent Alexander-Arnold – Liverpool
Ben Chilwell – Leicester City
Jake Clarke-Salter – Sunderland (loan from Chelsea)
Dael Fry - Middlesbrough
Mason Holgate - Everton
Jonjoe Kenny – Everton
Ryan Sessegnon - Fulham
Fikayo Tomori – Hull City (loan from Chelsea)
Kyle Walker-Peters – Tottenham Hotspur
Joe Worrall – Nottingham Forest
Tom Davies – Everton
Kieran Dowell – Nottingham Forest (loan from Everton)
Ovie Ejaria - Sunderland (loan from Liverpool)
Ainsley Maitland-Niles – Arsenal
Josh Onomah – Aston Villa (loan from Tottenham Hotspur)
Harry Winks – Tottenham Hotspur
Tammy Abraham – Swansea City (loan from Chelsea)
Dominic Calvert-Lewin – Everton
Demarai Gray - Leicester City
Jack Harrison – Middlesbrough (loan from Manchester City)
Ademola Lookman – RB Leipzig (loan from Everton)
James Maddison – Norwich City
Dominic Solanke – Liverpool
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