West Ham journalist Roshane Thomas is worried that Jarrod Bowen will miss out on an England call-up because of injury.
The lowdown
The 25-year-old limped off 53 minutes into West Ham’s 1-0 defeat against Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday evening.
The winger, who looked in ‘clear distress’ according to The Daily Mail’s Joe Bernstein, will have a scan on his heel to determine the severity of the problem.
England are due to face Switzerland on 26 March and Ivory Coast three days later in a pair of friendlies at the end of this month.
The latest
Thomas, who is West Ham correspondent for The Athletic, took to Twitter during the game to express his hope that the injury to Bowen is not serious enough to prevent him from earning a place in Gareth Southgate’s squad for the upcoming England games.
The journalist tweeted: “Really hope it’s nothing serious. Would be a great shame if injury prevented Bowen from earning an England call-up.”
The verdict
Bowen is more than deserving of a call-up for the Three Lions.
Only two English players – Jamie Vardy (10) and Emile Smith Rowe (nine) – have scored more non-penalty goals than Bowen (eight) in the Premier League this season (via FBRef), while only one – Trent Alexander-Arnold (11) – has provided more assists than Bowen’s eight (BBC Sport).
Missing out for fitness reasons would perhaps be tough to take for the 25-year-old, but he’d still hope to use subsequent international windows to convince Southgate that he’s worthy of a place in the squad for the World Cup in November.
West Ham’s bigger concern, of course, is potentially being without Bowen for a run of games which includes a Europa League round of 16 tie against Sevilla and a London derby against Tottenham Hotspur. Given his aforementioned goal contributions, he would be a big loss for those crunch fixtures.
In other news, a West Ham insider has shared this update on Jesse Lingard