Steven Caulker Called Into England Squad To Replace Rio Ferdinand

In the lead up to the announcements of the new England squad there was a lot of bluster about whether England manager Roy Hodgson would include Manchester United captain Rio Ferdinand. Well, Hodgson did add the 34 year old defender to the squad, but following a meeting with the England manager, Ferdinand elected to pull out of the squad.

Ferdinand's withdrawal left England in need of another center half, so Tottenham Hotspur's Steven Caulker was called up to join the senior squad for their World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Montenegro. The 21 year-old had already been called up by Stuart Pearce for the U-21 side, but will now teammates Jermain Defoe, Kyle Walker, and Scott Parker with the full England squad.

Caulker has been capped 8 times at the U-21 level and has one senior cap for England thus far. In his lone game, Caulker managed to score a goal against Sweden, the game which is memorable more for Zlatan Ibrihimovic's goal than anything else.