Having been recalled to the senior England fold by manager Roy Hodgson ahead of Wednesday’s friendly against Italy in Berne, Daniel Sturridge has been forced to withdraw from the squad with a toe injury sustained during his twenty-minute cameo in our 3-2 Community Shield defeat to Manchester City.
Meanwhile, Ryan Bertrand, who scored his first Chelsea goal in the game, is in line to earn his England debut in the absence of club team-mate Ashley Cole, while both Frank Lampard and Gary Cahill, two of the more experienced members of the squad, are expected to start having missed Euro 2012 through injury.
David Luiz and Ramires will meet up with the Brazil squad ahead of their game against Sweden in Stockholm, the midfielder’s first involvement with the national side since the 2011 Copa America, and they will be joined later in the week by our latest acquisition, Oscar, fresh from his involvement at the Olympics where he emerged with a silver medal following their 2-1 defeat to Mexico in the final.
Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku have been selected to represent Belgium when they take on Holland on Wednesday, where the Dutch will be desperate to put on a performance following their premature exit from the Euros. On his return, Lukaku will join up with the West Bromwich Albion squad whom he has joined on loan for the remainder of the season.
Raul Meireles will play for Portugal as they attempt to navigate what looks like, on paper at least, a fairly straightforward fixture against Panama in Algarve, while Yossi Benayoun is expected to captain Israel against Hungary.
Elsewhere, five of our younger players have also earned international recognition. Alex Davey and Islam Feruz have been called-up by Scotland Under 19s for their game against Norway, Thorgan Hazard and Lumisha Musonda have made the Belgium Under 21 squad and Gael Kakuta will head to a French training camp.