LONDON, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- England coach Gareth Southgate made several changes to the squad which finished fourth in this summer's World Cup when he gave his list for the forthcoming international matches against Spain and Switzerland on Thursday.
With Jamie Vardy and Gary Cahill confirming their retirement from international football, Southgate was bound to make some alterations from the squad which performed surprisingly well to reach the semi-finals in Russia and he has made a total of five changes with Joe Gomez and Adam Lallana, who missed the World Cup through fitness issues, both back in the squad.
Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy is in for the injured Nick Pope, whose Burnley team-mate James Tarkowski is also called up.
Finally Manchester United left back, Luke Shaw's good start to the season is rewarded with a recall with his clubmate, Ashley Young dropping out as Southgate looks to continue to give youth a chance.
"We won't stand still. We've added young players - Luke Shaw is still only 23. Joe Gomez is 21. We've reduced the age of the squad," he said, adding that he was "looking to consolidate but also looking forward to the future."
"We picked a squad in the summer that we believed were the best players for that. Not too much will have changed in that time because we reached the semi-final and there's only been three league games. We wanted some continuity," commented Southgate.
Full squad:
Goalkeepers: Jack Butland, Alex McCarthy, Jordan Pickford
Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Harry Maguire, Danny Rose, Luke Shaw, John Stones, James Tarkowski, Kieran Trippier, Kyle Walker
Midfielders: Fabian Delph, Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana, Jesse Lingard, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Raheem Sterling
Forwards: Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Danny Welbeck