Friday 13 May 2016 10:47, UK
Arsene Wenger says Roy Hodgson should name Arsenal pair Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere in his Euro 2016 England squad.
Hodgson names his England squad for France on Monday, and both players will be sweating on their inclusion after difficult seasons.
Wilshere has played just 72 minutes of first-team football since returning from a broken leg, while Walcott has not started a Premier League game since February's defeat at Manchester United.
Danny Welbeck's misfortune in suffering another serious knee injury has opened up one place in the 23-man party, though, and Wenger was talking up his players' chances ahead of Arsenal's final game of the season against Aston Villa.
"I think he should go," the Frenchman said of Walcott before confirming he expects the forward to remain at the Emirates this summer.
"He has gone through a bad spell, it's true, and after the Manchester United game he had a difficult period, but in the last month he has come back strongly and worked very hard in training. He could be a positive surprise for England."
Wilshere played more than an hour of the 2-2 draw at Manchester City after replacing Welbeck, and Wenger said: "He comes back at the right moment for him. Let's hope that until the start of the Euros it all goes well.
"I expect Roy to pick him for his passing qualities and his dribbling qualities."
Wenger said earlier in the week he and the Arsenal players were "devastated" by the injury that will rule out Welbeck for the next nine months - three months after he returned from damage to his other knee.
And speaking at his pre-Villa news conference, he admitted he is planning for an entire season without the striker despite a "secret hope" he could return inside the nine-month schedule.
Asked if the prognosis would affect his summer transfer plans Wenger said: "When a player is out for nine months, you have to consider that it's a season and that makes you short on the striker front.
"We are very sad, and the whole team is thinking like that. You imagine you are 25 and you get news like that... we will support him and I have a secret hope it could be shorter than the timescale given."
