Jesse Lingard's fine start to life as a West Ham player has seen the attacking midfielder return to Gareth Southgate's thoughts as he prepares to select his England squad for the upcoming international fixtures.
Southgate will, on Thursday, be naming the squad to take on San Marino, Albania and Poland over the space of six days in the first of the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
Lingard's inclusion is all the more likely due to the number of injuries and travel restrictions in place, but the 28-year-old's form would have been enough to have him on the England manager's radar in any case.
Rivals for the attacking-midfield roles Jack Grealish, James Maddison and Jadon Sancho are sidelined with injury and Borussia Dortmund's Jude Bellingham is reported in The Guardian to be unable to travel due to coronavirus restrictions.
Lingard was a key member of Southgate's 2018 World Cup squad but has not featured for England since 2019. His relegation to at first a bit-part player and then an unused squad member at Manchester United saw him overtaken in the England pecking order due to his lack of match action.
The first squad Lingard was dropped from was back in October 2019 with Mason Mount and Maddison receiving call-ups in his place.
Lingard's loan move to West Ham has re-energised the player and after four goals and one assist in six games under David Moyes' watch he is back in the England frame.
According to reports in the Mirror, before Lingard's loan move to West Ham, Moyes spoke to Southgate for a reference about the player both on and off the pitch.
The England manager apparently spoke in glowing terms about Lingard and was a key factor in Moyes' decision to sanction the move.
Southgate first worked with Lingard in his role as under-21 manager and we will find out tomorrow if they pair will link up once more.
