Gareth Southgate says England door not closed on Callum Wilson

England complete their World Cup qualifying campaign in San Marino tomorrow evening, with Friday’s five-goal thrashing of Albania meaning they only have to avoid defeat in Serravalle to guarantee their place at next winter’s finals in Qatar.

With Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling, Mason Mount, Jordan Henderson and Luke Shaw all unavailable, Southgate called Conor Gallagher into the squad this morning and there is a good chance the uncapped Crystal Palace attacking midfielder will be handed an international debut at some stage in tomorrow’s game.

Gallagher is the second player to have been plucked from the Under-21s in the last week, with Arsenal’s Emile Smith Rowe having won his first senior cap against Albania, and Southgate appears keen to promote youngsters into his squad rather than turn back to some of the more experienced players who have dropped out of the international picture in the last couple of years.

Wilson falls into that category, with the most recent of his four England appearances having come in a European Championships qualifier against Bulgaria in October 2019, but while the Newcastle forward would appear to be on the periphery of Southgate’s plans, the England boss insists there is still a chance he could earn a recall.

“We haven’t really had an opening for a forward, but the door is never closed on anyone,” said Southgate, who will make wholesale changes to his starting line-up tomorrow.

“In terms of the players we’ve called up this time, we just think Emile and Conor are playing better than others that we could have called in. It’s as simple as that.

“I like the idea of bringing young players in because you’re investing in England’s future. It would be easier perhaps, in the short term, to bring in an older player, but I’m not certain there are older players playing better than those two at this current moment in time, in the positions that they’re playing.”

Gallagher has been in fine form since joining Palace on loan from Chelsea in the summer, and played in the Under-21s’ victory over the Czech Republic last Thursday.

He has scored in his last two Premier League outings against Manchester City and Wolves, and has been on Southgate’s radar throughout his development during a series of loan spells.

“We’ve tracked Conor for quite a long time, his loan spells at Charlton and Swansea, West Brom and Crystal Palace,” said the England boss. “At each loan, he has done really well. He’s started the season very well at Palace, and we talked about him when we named the original squad as someone who we wanted to keep an eye on.

“I suppose it’s one of the benefits of being with the Under-21s because it was an easy transition for us to be able to bring him across. He’s already Covid-tested, so going from one bubble to another was straightforward. That’s not to say he’s only here because of that though – he’s here because he deserves to be here.”

Sterling misses tomorrow’s game because of a personal issue, while Grealish and Henderson have both been ruled out because of injury concerns.

“With Hendo, it was something picked up during the game (against Albania), and with Jack, it’s something we think perhaps was during the game, but he trained (on Saturday),” said Southgate. “As a precaution, we’ve scanned both of them and there are small injuries on the scans. We hope they’re not going to miss too much football from here on.”