Declan Rice has been included in the England squad for two 2024 UEFA European Championship qualifiers to be played in March.
The West Ham United skipper, who is one shy of 40 caps for England, has been called up by Gareth Southgate for qualifiers against Ukraine and Italy.
The Three Lions will head to the Euro defending champions on Thursday 23 March, before Rice and company host a Ukraine side captained by former Hammer Andriy Yarmolenko on Sunday 26 March. Malta and North Macedonia complete the teams competing alongside England in Group C.
Rice will hope to take a first step towards a third appearance at a major senior international tournament, with the Euros set to take place between 14 June and 14 July 2024 in Germany. Berlin's Olympiastadion will stage the final on Sunday 14 July 2024.
Having been an integral part of the England side that reached the UEFA European Championship final in July 2021 and also the FIFA World Cup quarter-finals in 2022, Rice has been part of England’s resurgence under Southgate.
England’s fixture against Italy will be a repeat of the Euro 2020 final which Roberto Mancini’s men edged 3-2 on penalties following a 1-1 draw at Wembley Stadium. The last meeting between the sides came in a 0-0 draw in the UEFA Nations League in June last year.
Four days after their trip to Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, England will face Ukraine at Wembley Stadium. This fixture repeats the UEFA Euro 2020 quarter-final, held in Rome. The two sides have not met since England won 4-0 in July 2021.
Since Rice’s international debut in March 2019, which came in a 5-0 Euro 2020 qualifying win over Czech Republic, the midfielder has represented England on 39 occasions in total.
In that time, the Hammers’ No41 scored twice for his country – first in a UEFA Nations League tie over Iceland in 2020, then a year later against Hungary in a World Cup qualifier.
Over March, Rice could feature against fellow Hammers Emerson and Gianluca Scamacca, who could be named in Italy’s squad for qualifiers against England and Malta.
