Carl Jenkinson
arsenal.com

England boss Roy Hodgson confirmed that Arsenal wing-back Carl Jenkinson has pledged his international future to the Three Lions.

The 20-year-old, who joined the Gunners from Charlton Athletic last summer, has started all Premier League and Champions League games for his club so far this season and has earned plaudits for his solid performances at the back, in the absence of veteran Bacary Sagna.

Jenkinson, whose mother is from Finland, trained with the England squad last week, after being called up as a replacement to Kyle Walker, who suffered a calf injury. However, the defender is not eligible to feature against the World Cup qualifier against Poland, after having represented Finland at the U-19 and U-21 levels.

"He didn't take a lot of convincing. We had a problem with Kyle and wanted a full complement in our training session, so we called Carl up. He was in my thoughts anyway. I invited him to train with us knowing full well he couldn't take part in this game and that gave me the opportunity to sit him down and ask him in the question," BBC quoted Hodgson as saying.

The England manager insisted he never planned to make Jenkinson play a few minutes in Warsaw, so that the player will not be eligible to represent Finland anymore and added that he is ready to contact Fifa for approval to select the Arsenal star for England.

"I don't want to trick him to play for England with a few minutes in a game to block [him]. But he had to make a decision because we're very interested in him even if the competition is tougher to get him into the England team rather than the Finland team. He made it very clear he wanted to play in England. We are now making overtures to FIFA to try and make certain we can have him as an England player," Hodgson told thefa.com.

Poland