James Ward-Prowse has received a belated call-up to the England squad.

The Saints midfielder was controversially overlooked when Gareth Southgate last week named his squad for the upcoming for the Euro qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Montenegro.

However, the withdrawals of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Fabian Delph and John Stones has seen Southgate opt to draft in Ward-Prowse, who will link-up with the rest of the squad at St George’s Park today.

The 24-year-old has been in stunning for Saints of late, with six goals in his last nine Premier League games for the club.

That wasn’t enough to prevent Southgate initially naming the likes of Loftus-Cheek and Declan Rice ahead of him, confusingly stating that the decision was based on Ward-Prowse’s amount of game time, even though he had figured more than most of his rivals.

Southgate said: “We love Prowsey, I have been accused of being father of Prowsey over the years.

“This most recent spell is his best since we capped him before, he is a world class deliverer of set-plays.

“He has only recently got back into the team at Southampton.

“Our midfield is a difficult balance, four months on from our last game you could say that Delph isn’t playing for Man City but he was our best player against Croatia.”

Southgate handed Ward-Prowse his only England cap so far, which came as a late substitute in a 1-0 away defeat to Germany two years ago.

England take on the Czech Republic at Wembley on Friday night before heading off to face Montenegro next Monday night.