Tino Livramento has returned to the England Under-21s squad for the first time in over 18 months.
The Newcastle defender has not featured since March 2022, having suffered a serious knee injury a month later which ruled him out for over a year.
He has made four appearances for Newcastle since his £32million move from Southampton in August.
Aaron Ramsey has also returned, with Brentford goalkeeper Matthew Cox – currently on loan at Bristol Rovers – Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah, Hull’s Jaden Philogene and Jonathan Rowe of Norwich given their first call ups for the Euro qualifiers against Serbia and Ukraine.
Boss Lee Carsley said: “Tino is a player we rate highly, it’s going to be good to have him back in and around the squad.
“He’s been out for a while injured, so we’ll be looking to support him and Newcastle with that.
“Jaden and Jonathan are both doing really well with their clubs at the minute – they’re players who are in form which is always a good position for us to be in.
“We also have Jarell Quansah in the squad for the first time. He’s been getting game time at Liverpool which, as we know, is a really tough team to get into for any player, so he deserves to be a part of this squad.”
The Young Lions, the defending champions, host Serbia in Group F at the City Ground next Thursday before facing Ukraine in Slovakia on October 16.
The players need to know they have to keep performing— Lee Carsley
Carsley added: “We always talk about the players pushing each other and we should never be in a position where we’re doing a copy and paste of the squad list.
“The players need to know they have to keep performing, either with their clubs or when they’re on camp with us.
“There are some players in the squad who weren’t with us last time and there are four or five who are really close to getting in this squad.
“When we look at the Elite League squad (previously Under-20s), that’s also a very competitive age group and we want to have them in the position where they are pushing these players in the older age group.”
England Under-21 squad: Beadle (Oxford, on loan from Brighton), Cox (Bristol Rovers, on loan from Brentford), Trafford (Burnley); Branthwaite (Everton), Cresswell (Leeds), Harwood-Bellis (Southampton, on loan from Manchester City), Humphreys (Swansea, on loan from Chelsea), Lewis (Manchester City), Livramento (Newcastle), Norton-Cuffy (Millwall, on loan from Arsenal), Quansah (Liverpool); Elliott (Liverpool), Hackney (Middlesbrough), McAtee (Sheffield United, loan from Manchester City), Patino (Swansea City, on loan from Arsenal), Ramsey (Burnley); Bynoe-Gittens (Borussia Dortmund), Delap (Hull, on loan from Manchester City), Iling-Junior (Juventus), Madueke (Chelsea), Palmer (Chelsea), Philogene (Hull), Rowe (Norwich)
