Jenkinson trains with England

Carl Jenkinson trained with the senior England squad for the first time yesterday at London Colney. He has been tipped for a call-up to the England squad this season following an impressive start to the 2012/13 campaign whilst deputising for the injured Bacary Sagna.

The Independent are reporting that Jenkinson was going to be a late call-up for this week’s World Cup qualifier against Poland, however, as Jenkinson had represented Finland’s under-21 team due to having a Finnish mother, FIFA told the FA that he needs three weeks international clearance before playing. It is believed that Roy Hodgson will announce that Jenkinson has committed his international future to England.

Jenkinson is in Hodgson’s mind now for the friendly next month in Gothenburg against Sweden and it is believed that he was invited to the training session to give him a taste of what to expect in future.

Hodgson said: “On this occasion, we decided to… keep Jenkinson up our sleeves, but he’ll be very much in our thoughts when it comes to the next friendly match.
“After speaking to Arsène [Wenger] I am also conscious that his rise has been meteoric. He’s only 20 and it’s nice to temper things a little bit, but he wouldn’t be out of place in the squad.”

The way that Jenkinson has played this season, it’s fair to say that Bacary Sagna may have a hard time winning his place back. Sagna has been one of Arsenal’s most consistent and reliable players since arriving from Auxerre in the summer of 2007. But he has had two major injuries in a year and Jenkinson is pushing for his place. As we have seen this season with the goalkeeping situation, Wenger has stated that Vito Mannone has been playing well and is pushing the currently injured Wojciech Szczesny for the number 1 shirt. If you had told me Mannone stood a chance of being our no.1 keeper this year back in pre-season, I’d have laughed at you. Jenkinson less so, but I would have said Sagna would certainly be taking his place back in the team after his recovery. Now I’m not so sure…

Jenkinson’s performances this year have caught the eye of England manager Roy Hodgson.