Theo Walcott has today been recalled to the senior England squad after Fabio Capello confirmed his provisional squad of 30 players for the friendly away to France next week.

Theo Walcott has been named in the England U21 squad for the forthcoming European Championship qualifying matches.

There had been speculation that Theo could be named in the full England squad for the Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia.

Full England Under-21 squad:

Alnwick (Tottenham), Hart (Man City), Heaton (Man Utd); A Taylor (Middlesbrough), Onouha (Man City), S Taylor (Newcastle), Wheater (Middlesbrough), Gardner (Aston Villa), Mancienne (Chelsea), Jones (Preston); Huddlestone (Tottenham), Johnson (Middlesbrough), Kightly (Wolves), Milner (Newcastle), Muamba (Birmingham), Surman (Southampton), Walcott (Arsenal), Cattermole (Middlesbrough), Leadbitter (Sunderland); Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Derbyshire (Blackburn), Moore (Aston Villa), Jerome (Birmingham), Vaughan (Everton).

Arsene Wenger has urged England coach Steve McClaren to recall Theo Walcott to the national side, more than a year after the 18-year-old was controversially named in the 2006 World Cup squad.

Walcott has been a revelation this season and played a starring role in Arsenal’s 7-0 Champions League thrashing of Slavia Prague at the Emirates Stadium last night.

Only a brilliant one-handed save denied him a hat-trick as Arsenal recorded their biggest win in the competition, and the joint-best in Europe by any team.

England could certainly do with some fresh impetus up front, after the poor showing in their latest Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia, and Wenger is convinced Walcott has matured sufficiently to make his mark on the international stage.

He said: “You complain about not having any strikers and he’s one of them. He has intelligence, fantastic pace and his technique is improving.

“When you go from being a young promising player to the world of men, you discover the world is not as ideal as you thought.

“We saw how clinical his finishing can be. He doesn’t panic in front of goal. He has the talent.”

From Telegraph 

England Under 21 boss Stuart Pearce hopes that Theo Walcott nails down a regular place in the Arsenal team after the forward gave Romania the runaround in a 1-1 draw tuesday night.

Pearce was impressed with the performance of Walcott, who underwent shoulder surgery in the summer, but knows the 18-year-old needs to be playing regularly.

Pearce said: “Theo gets you off your seat and goes past people for fun. He needs to get 90 minutes under his belt as often as he can. It would have been nice to have had him in the squad in the summer.”

Theo Walcott gave a reminder of just why he was taken to the world cup in last nights 1-1 draw against Romania U21.

Walcott’s running terrifeid the Romanian defence, and forced the Norwegian referee to show three yellow cards before half time for fouls on the Arsenal star.

Full match report of England U21 v Romania U21

Stuart Pearce has today named his first England U21 squad as the full-time Coach.

Theo has of course been included in this squad, along with Wolves winger Michael Kightly who, less than a year ago, was playing in the Football Conference with Essex club Grays Athletic.

The full squad:
Ben Alnwick, Joe Hart, Martin Cranie, Craig Gardner, Michael Mancienne, Nedum Onuoha, Andrew Taylor, Steven Taylor, David Wheater, Tom Huddlestone, Adam Johnson, Michael Johnson, Michael Kightly, James Milner, Fabrice Muamba, Mark Noble, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Dexter Blackstock, Matt Derbyshire, Luke Moore, Theo Walcott