Rashford and Glen Johnson recalled as Southgate names England squad

Gareth Southgate has named his first squad as caretaker England manager with Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford and Stoke City defender Glen Johnson handed recalls to the senior side.

The Three Lions face World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia in October with the national team having endured a turbulent week following the departure of Sam Allardyce after just 67 days and one game in the job.

Southgate, who has agreed to take charge of the next four games, has named a 23-man squad with Malta the visitors to Wembley on Saturday with England facing Slovenia in Ljubljana on 11 October.

Rashford returns to the squad after featuring for the Under-21s last time out, scoring a hat-trick on his debut, in a 6-1 win over Norway in September.

Also back in the squad is Johnson, for the first time since World Cup 2014 while uncapped Jesse Lingard and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are also called-up.

"We've tried to keep some continuity from last month because my view would be that there are a lot of things that have been going right," Southgate told the FA's official website.

"We've had a few people unavailable through injury like Harry Kane and Jack Butland and we've lost a couple over the weekend in Danny Drinkwater, Adam Lallana and Nathaniel Clyne, while Luke Shaw isn't quite back fit yet. That's had a bearing on the squad.

"There are obviously a couple of players that I've worked with in the Under-21s with Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard, who we think are exciting young players who we wanted to put in this squad.

"It's obviously been a difficult week in a number of ways, however we are in a position now where it's important to get the squad named. 

"I'm looking forward now to working with the players because it's important that we build on the performance and the result against Slovakia."

Squad in full:

Goalkeepers: Fraser Forster (Southampton), Joe Hart (Torino, loan from Manchester City), Tom Heaton (Burnley)

Defenders: Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Stoke City), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur)

Midfielders: Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Michail Antonio (West Ham United), Jesse Lingard (Manchester United), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur)

Strikers: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)