Everton defender Michael Keane drafted into England squad with Chelsea set to assess Gary Cahill

Everton defender Michael Keane has been drafted into the latest England squad as cover for Chelsea captain Gary Cahill, who will undergo an assessment by his club following Sunday's (5 November) victory over Manchester United before hopefully joining the camp ahead of a high-profile friendly double-header against Germany and Brazil.

Keane missed Everton's meetings with Chelsea, Leicester City and Lyon after a gash on his foot first sustained in September became infected. The infection later spread up his leg and the centre-back was briefly hospitalised before returning to play 90 minutes in a dramatic 3-2 defeat of Watford at Goodison Park.

Cahill, meanwhile, was left on the bench for Chelsea's slender win over Bournemouth last weekend and struggled on the right-hand side of a three-man defence during the harrowing Champions League loss in Rome before impressing in his regular position against United.

Antonio Conte's captain played the full game at Stamford Bridge alongside Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta in a rejigged defence that initially contained no Antonio Rudiger or David Luiz, the latter of whom was dropped from the matchday squad altogether as a punishment for reportedly querying his manager's tactics.

The experienced Cahill has been a regular fixture for England over recent years and served as vice-captain under Roy Hodgson. Former Republic of Ireland youth international Keane made his senior debut in the previous friendly clash against Germany in March and has since gone onto collect four caps in total, starting both 2018 World Cup qualifiers against Lithuania.

Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate has a few injury concerns to contend with before preparations for next summer's tournament in Russia ramp up with successive Wembley friendlies against two traditional powerhouses of world football.

Dele Alli has already withdrawn from the squad as the result of a hamstring injury suffered during Tottenham's memorable win over Real Madrid last week that ruled him out of the subsequent Premier League fixture against Crystal Palace.

Harry Winks was substituted at half-time of that 1-0 win after twisting his ankle in a challenge with Luka Milivojevic, while Mauricio Pochettino is evidently hoping that England exercise caution with regards to Harry Kane, who has been nursing a hamstring strain of late and received a hefty kick to the ankle from Palace loanee Timothy Fosu-Mensah.

Both of those players will be assessed before reporting to St. George's Park, while the Football Association (FA) add that Jordan Henderson is scheduled to join his teammates later in the week.

The Liverpool skipper, who has been rotating the international captaincy with Kane, suffered a thigh issue after a training session at Melwood on Friday [3 November] and was still set to play against West Ham United the following day before being omitted by Jurgen Klopp on the advice of his medical department.