Arsenal youngster Marli Salmon has received a late call-up to England’s squad for the u17 World Cup.
England Football have confirmed that Arsenal’s Marli Salmon has been called up by England for the u17 World Cup, replacing Elijah Upson after an injury to the Spurs centre-back.
Though ostensibly an u17 competition, it’s actually the England u18s playing at the tournament. That’s because they were the u17s during qualifying, so the players who earned England’s spot at the event are allowed to play in it despite many of them no longer being “under” 17.
16-year-old Salmon had initially been called up by the actual England u17s last week for their u17 European Championship qualifiers, but he withdrew from participation to step up to the u18s for the World Cup. As a result, he missed Monday’s u17 defeat to Sweden.
Arsenal’s Jack Porter is also in the squad for the tournament, but Max Dowman isn’t, despite playing a key role in qualifying.
Dowman is obviously receiving regular call-ups to the Arsenal first-team right now, so Mikel Arteta probably would have pushed back against releasing him for the World Cup. The tournament falls outside of the usual international windows and thus requires club permission to play.
But in the end, the decision was taken out of Arsenal’s hands when Dowman was promoted to the England u19s in September.
Porter and Salmon could get their first opportunities at the u17 World Cup on Tuesday, with England kicking off their campaign against Venezuela at 15:15 GMT. The game is live on ITV4 for viewers in the UK.
England then face Haiti and Egypt in their other two group games, needing to finish in the top-two to guarantee progression to the knockout stages.