Richards set for England call

Manchester City's teenage defender Micah Richards is expected to be the surprise name in Steve McClaren's England squad for next week's friendly with Holland.

The 18-year-old, who can play either in central defence or right-back, only made his City first-team debut just over 12 months ago and did not start a Premiership game for the Blues until February this year.

Although now a regular member of Stuart Pearce's squad, Richards has still only made 28 senior appearances for the Blues.

Quick, strong, excellent in the air and with an eye for goal, as he proved at Everton earlier this season, Richards has long been viewed as a star of the future and was interesting Tottenham until City tied him down to an extended four-year deal.

Richards celebrated by earning his first England Under-21 cap against Moldova in August but it now appears his selection was a prelude to even greater honours as McClaren looks to reinvigorate his squad.

England are still reeling from their disastrous October double-header which saw them draw with Macedonia at Old Trafford and go down to Croatia in Zagreb. The twin setback placed a major question mark over England's hopes of reaching the Finals in Austria and Switzerland and led to McClaren cancelling a planned fact-finding visit to Seattle.

Instead, McClaren has used the time to check the form of his senior stars, as well as the youngsters responsible for getting England to this summer's European Under-21 Championships.

Richards was one of that group and having seen the Birmingham-born defender in person during City's recent win over Middlesbrough, it appears McClaren has been persuaded to take a chance on his promise. Aside from Richards, a couple of other changes appear certain.

Tottenham's Aaron Lennon has now recovered from the ankle injury that kept him out last month, while Andrew Johnson has overcome the hamstring problem which forced him to pull out of McClaren's squad.

On-loan Charlton goalkeeper Scott Carson could profit if Wigan's Chris Kirkland decides he does not want to travel to Amsterdam as his wife is due to give birth to their first child. With a friendly against Spain arranged for February, McClaren has two games in which to rectify the problems he has unearthed before England head to Israel for another testing qualifier in March.