Joe Hart to be named in first England squad but Sam Allardyce warns axed Manchester City goalkeeper and Wayne Rooney
JOE HART has been handed a major boost with Sam Allardyce confirming he will "definitely" name the axed Manchester City goalkeeper in his first squad on Sunday.
But Allardyce then fired a warning to Hart other Three Lions hopefuls that they must be playing regularly to make the cut in future.
City boss Pep Guardiola has told Hart he can leave the Etihad after shunning his talents this season in preference of Willy Caballero between the sticks.
But new boss Allardyce will name Hart in his squad for the Three Lions' first World Cup qualifier in Slovakia on September 4.
Guardiola claimed on Friday that Hart had two options - to leave or fight for his place.
And although the stopper is adamant he will not be forced out of the club, his chances of first-team action look increasingly bleak with City set to clinch the £14.5million signing of Claudio Bravo from Barcelona.
However, Allardyce has no issue with picking the 29-year-old, despite Hart's handling howlers against Wales and Iceland at Euro 2016.
Allardyce told Sky Sports News: "In terms of picking Joe and the goalkeeper that he is, he will be in the squad - definitely.
"What do we do? I won't really know that until I speak to Joe and that will be the same with most of the players when they arrive."
"The problem for any player you want to select for England, not just in isolation but in total areas, is that it will be a concern if a player doesn't play for his team. I think that you have to have your doubts about that.
"But before I meet up with Joe I don't really know where he lies in that process at the moment, so I think that when we pick the first squad and then the lads come here (St George's Park) there will be some lads that don't play on a regular basis.
"Roy (Hodgson) talked about that many times before so I think that we, in the end, select the players that are in the best form, yes. Are they fit and playing? Yes.
"Can you get them all in the England squad that play every week? Probably 'no' now, so that is a concern that we have to overcome and hopefully that's on top of hopefully not too many players getting injured.
"All that falls around on the basis that English players playing in the Premier League has diminished over the years, so we have to cope with that the best way that we can."
Allardyce has also dismissed Wayne Rooney's critics and backed him to bounce back from skippering England to their Euro 2016 humiliation against Iceland.
But 'Big Sam' would not be drawn on what he thought Rooney's best position is - having played in midfield under Louis van Gaal at Manchester United and then Roy Hodgson over the summer, before Jose Mourinho restored him to his favoured No 10 role at the start of the season.
Allardyce added: "He's England captain, he's the most successful England player for the last decade, he's broken every record at league level, Champions League level and international level, so yes, we should talk very much about Wayne and about how good he is, what a fantastic player he is and what a really, really good captain he is.
"Why can't we be flexible? I don't know why we can't be flexible. I think in terms of my time over the last 25 years, the success has come about by asking the players to be flexible and play in a position that sometimes they don't normally play and be successful in that position.