Euro 2020 qualifiers: England name Maddison, Stones & Oxlade-Chamberlain in squad

Media caption,

Maddison has to fight for his place in England squad - Gareth Southgate

James Maddison has been named in England's Euro 2020 qualifiers squad - despite the Leicester midfielder being pictured in a casino after pulling out of the last squad with illness.

Defender John Stones, midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and winger Callum Hudson-Odoi have been recalled.

England host Montenegro on 14 November and play in Kosovo on 17 November.

Gareth Southgate's side are top of Group A and need one more point to secure their place at Euro 2020.

Manchester City centre-back Stones replaces Everton defender Michael Keane, while Liverpool's Oxlade-Chamberlain and Chelsea's Hudson-Odoi have been added to a 27-man squad.

Southgate said the "squad is a little larger than normal" because there were a "couple of injury doubts".

Maddison needs to be 'high-performance, low-maintenance'

Maddison has been picked in the past three squads but is yet to make his debut for England.

Southgate described his casino visit last month as a "bad decision", but said he was not going to make an example of the midfielder.

"He's only been in two squads," said Southgate. "He had to go home ill last time. We sent him home - he was ill.

"Any suggestion he chose to go home because he wanted to go out is unfair. It's not a great decision he took [to visit a casino].

"As an England player you have a different profile. Everyone has a camera-phone and wants to make money selling pictures.

"I didn't feel the need to make a special case to call him. I wanted to see whether we would be selecting on form.

"I think it would be dangerous territory for me to go on a moral crusade over something that I don't think was a good decision but was in his own time and we had released him from the squad.

"I'm not perfect and a lot of the players that we selected have had their moments. I didn't think this was one to hinder him in terms of selection.

"But it's not a good situation for a player when we're talking about him in Sofia, and talking about him here and he's yet to get on the pitch for us, so that's the challenge.

"You want to be high-performance, low-maintenance. I am prepared to work with players who are more difficult but you're more likely to back those players if they've scored a winner for you and sweated blood for you, and that's the bond you build with those players over a longer period of time."

Southgate added that Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish was "very close" to making his squad.

"Grealish is a very good player - I've watched him closely this season," he said.

"The reality is he's up against Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

"If we have any issues with the squad I wouldn't hesitate to call him up. He was very close and just has to keep playing the way he is."

Racism sanctions to get higher and higher - Southgate

England's 6-0 victory in Bulgaria last time out was overshadowed by fans' racist abuse towards players, forcing the match to be stopped twice.

Bulgaria, who already had a partial stadium closure for that match, have been ordered to play two matches behind closed doors - one suspended for two years - and fined 75,000 euros (£65,000) by Uefa as punishment.

Southgate believes punishments will have to be increased.

"I think the sanctions are going to have to get higher and higher, but I couldn't honestly tell you what the right answer for that would be," he said.

"I think it's impossible to pitch and get consensus on. I understand that sanctions are important but other people have got to deal with that."

Southgate added: "It depends on what we view as being enough. In some respects, if we had thrown Bulgaria out of the competition, that would've been easy as well because they're out."

The England manager says he did see some good in Sofia, highlighting Bulgaria captain Ivelin Popov, who tried to reason with a section of home fans at half-time.

He also warned that English football has its own issues to deal with before calling for others to be punished.

"In my head, I've got their captain, who probably was as brave as anyone on the field that night," added Southgate.

"Frankly, to go over to your own fans when you're getting thrashed and to try and affect it in the way he did, I thought was a hugely commendable act.

"That can have consequences, as we all know, in going over and fighting that battle. So, would I want to see him as an individual punished?

"Certainly not. There were loads of kids in the stadium who were desperate for pictures with our players too. So, we made friends there.

"There's no question we look at Bulgaria and think everything there was wrong. There were clearly people in the ground that have no place, as far as we're concerned, in football.

"But, those people exist in our stadiums as well and we're maybe better equipped at stopping them coming into the stadiums.

"That's something that, in some countries, they're going to have to get better at."

England squad:

Goalkeepers: Tom Heaton (Aston Villa), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Burnley)

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Ben Chilwell (Leicester), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa), Danny Rose (Tottenham), John Stones (Manchester City), Fikayo Tomori (Chelsea), Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid)

Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Chelsea), Fabian Delph (Everton), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), James Maddison (Leicester City), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Liverpool), Declan Rice (West Ham), Harry Winks (Tottenham)

Forwards: Tammy Abraham (Chelsea), Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Callum Wilson (Bournemouth)

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