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Barry wins quickfire England reprieve
England coach Steve McClaren has called Aston Villa's Gareth Barry
into his squad for the Euro 2008 double header with Israel and Andorra.
Barry, whose omission from McClaren's original 23-man party was criticised
by Villa boss Martin O'Neill, fills the vacancy created by the absence
of Gary Neville.
Although Neville is England's first choice right back, and Barry plays
on the left, McClaren felt he had enough cover for the Manchester United
man in deputy Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher and Phil Neville, who
are expected to compete for the left-back slot.
Barry's call-up provides McClaren with additional balance ahead of the
Tel Aviv encounter as England look to get their qualification hopes back
on track.
Neville's injury, which came just seven minutes into United's Premiership
win over Bolton on Saturday lunchtime, was the worst possible start to
the weekend for McClaren, who was fearing the damage caused by tonight's
FA Cup quarter-final replays, which are due to feature 12 of his players.
However, it seems the England coach has avoided major additional problems,
with both Steven Gerrard and Richards due to meet up as planned tomorrow
despite picking up knocks on duty for Liverpool and Manchester City respectively.
The one major doubt is Charlton's Darren Bent, who will also report for
duty even though Addicks boss Alan Pardew feels his star striker has virtually
no chance of being involved because of a troublesome knee injury.
If Bent misses out as expected, it would almost certainly mean a first
senior call-up for Preston hit-man David Nugent.
Should the Huyton-born forward step up from Under-21 duty, he will be
in line to become the first English-based player from outside the Premiership
to play for his country since Michael Gray in 1999, and the first Preston
man to wear the Three Lions since the legendary Tom Finney.
Soccernet.espn.go.com,
March 19, 2007.
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