Carsley calls up five post exodus; Odegaard blow for Norway at NL

England interim manager Lee Carsley gave a first senior call-up to Aston Villa forward Morgan Rogers as one of five additions to his last squad on Monday after eight players pulled out.

The team faces Greece in Athens on Thursday before hosting Ireland three days later. Both games are in the Nations League.

Seven of the players to drop out came from the top four clubs in the Premier League: Levi Colwill and Cole Palmer of Chelsea; Arsenal’s Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka; Manchester City midfielders Phil Foden and Jack Grealish and Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold. The eighth withdrawal was Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.

Rogers was promoted from the Under-21 squad alongside Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford, Newcastle’s Tino Livramento and Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite. Of the quartet only centre-back Branthwaite has a senior England cap. West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen, who has 12 senior caps, was also added to the squad.

Carsley will return to his role as Under-21 manager after Nations League games, with Thomas Tuchel starting as the new boss in January.

Defeat in Athens would end England’s chances of automatic promotion from the second tier of the Nations League.

Tuchel has signed an 18-month deal that begins on Jan.1, so will only be an interested observer during this month’s games.

Meanwhile, Norway will be without captain Martin Odegaard for their Nations League matches against Slovenia and Kazakhstan as the Arsenal midfielder needs time to get match fit after recovering from an ankle injury, the Norwegian Football Federation said on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old came off the bench in added time during Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat at Inter Milan in the Champions League last week, having had two months on the sidelines due to the injury which he had picked up on international duty.

Odegaard then played the full 90 minutes of Arsenal’s 1-1 draw at Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday.

“This has been a complicated ankle injury. With very few training sessions with the team (Arsenal) over the past nine weeks, it’s natural that the body is not 100% at this stage,” national team doctor Ola Sand said in a statement.

“After thorough examinations and conversations, we have agreed that Martin will not be ready to play in the matches against Slovenia and Kazakhstan. “In consultation with him, we’ve agreed that it’s better for him to return to London to continue his rehabilitation there.”

Odegaard has 61 caps for Norway, who are top of Group B3 but level on seven points with Austria and Slovenia after four matches. Kazakhstan are bottom with one point. Norway visit Slovenia on Thursday and face Kazakhstan in Oslo on Sunday.

Elsewhere, Germany and Bayern Munich attacking midfielder Jamal Musiala does not spend time reading any of the recent praise for his performances for club and country, he said on Tuesday, instead putting in the work with an eye on the 2026 World Cup.

The 21-year-old Musiala, who scored the winning goal in Bayern’s last two matches in all competitions, has already netted five times in the league so far this season and has been arguably the best player for the Bavarians.

“The focus is to get better and keep putting in the work and not look around too much. For me it is important to take steps forward,” Musiala told a press conference ahead of Germany’s Nations League matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary on Nov. 16 and Nov. 19 respectively.

Agencies