Kingswinford's Ebony Salmon named in England squad for cup clashes

Salmon, 22, was born in Kingswinford and played junior football for Gornal Colts. She is currently playing her football in the USA, representing Houston Dash.

She joins former Houston player Rachel Daly, now starring for Villa, in the squad, though JOrdan Nobbs, joined Villa from Arsenal last month, misses out.

There is no place among the forwards for United’s Nikita Parris, or Bethany England following her January switch from Chelsea to Tottenham.

Skipper Leah Williamson is back after injury, as are Lucy Bronze, Lauren Hemp and Lotte Wubben-Moy, and Fran Kirby returns after illness. Beth Mead misses out due to her ACL injury.

Uncapped goalkeeper Emily Ramsey, on loan at Everton from Manchester United, is also called up, and Chelsea defender Jess Carter is recalled.

European champions England, who won the inaugural Arnold Clark Cup a year ago, open this campaign and their fixtures for 2023 by playing South Korea in Milton Keynes a week on Thursday.

The Lionesses then face Italy in Coventry three days later, followed by Belgium in Bristol another three days after that as they continue to build towards the summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

England boss Sarina Wiegman said: “The first camp of the year is always important to set the right tone for what comes next, especially with such a big opportunity in the summer.

“We are only looking forward now and we have to stay humble and focused on working hard. We know the fans will be with us again and we can’t wait to see them at every stadium. We had a positive experience with the Arnold Clark Cup last time.

“We had three tough matches with different challenges in each one, and we were able to learn a lot from our performances and work on many details which we are aiming to do again.”