Conor Gallagher has been selected as part of Gareth Southgate's 26-man squad for the 2022 Qatar World Cup along with two other Chelsea stars.
The midfielder has had an upturn in form under Graham Potter after being demoted to England's Under-21s for the last international break. It comes as Reece James and Ben Chilwell miss out on the squad due to injury and Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Trevoh Chalobah miss out.
Gallagher has played four times for the senior side after making his debut in 2021 and scored his first goal for Chelsea last month in 2-1 win over Crystal Palace but was left with a nervy wait to find out if he would be on the plane to Qatar after Chelsea's 2-0 Carabao Cup defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday night.
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Gallagher has been far from a favourite for Southgate but has caught the eye with his energy and pressing and the 22-year-old's movement to a more familiar attacking midfield role or as an orthodox No 8 has seen him called up for the major tournament that starts in two weeks.
However, despite this, he had to learn of his fate almost the same way as everyone else did! football.london understands Gallagher wasn't told of his place in the squad until just before the public release of the 26-man cohort at 2pm on Thursday (November 10).
Gareth Southgate later confirmed he hadn't spoken to everyone, saying: "The only phone calls I’ve made are the two players coming back from injury [Phillips & Walker], the lads left out and James [Maddison]. There aren’t enough hours in the day [to call everyone].”
Elsewhere, Raheem Sterling and Mason Mount were both picked for the squad as expected but Trevoh Chalobah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek missed out.
Loftus-Cheek had been tipped as a surprise inclusion due to his versatility between wingback and midfield, alongside his previous experience with England at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but he missed out.
Chalobah has played every game for the Blues since Wesley Fofana's injury against AC Milan in early October but also missed out in favour of Tottenham defender Eric Dier and Arsenal's Ben White.
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