England manager Gareth Southgate will be in attendance for Southampton’s match against Everton on Saturday to take a closer look at goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, reports The Guardian.
The Three Lions boss has a goalkeeping dilemma ahead of England’s first set of matches since the 2018 World Cup next month and is short of competition for Everton’s Jordan Pickford.
England took Nick Pope and Jack Butland to Russia as their other goalkeepers but Pope is injured for the foreseeable future and Butland is now playing in the Championship.
Joe Hart, who was snubbed for the World Cup, has made a decent start to life at Burnley, while Southgate wants to assess McCarthy’s suitability this weekend.
The former England under-21 international has twice been called up to senior squads as injury cover but remains uncapped.
McCarthy usurped Fraser Forster in the pecking order at Southampton midway through last term and has fended off Angus Gunn, momentarily at least, for the No.1 shirt at Saint Mary’s this season.
Mark Hughes’ side spent £13.5m to sign Gunn from Manchester City and his arrival appeared to signal the end of McCathy’s run as Southampton’s first choice goalkeeper.
However, the 28-year-old was selected in goal against Burnley last weekend and vindicated Hughes’ faith with a WhoScored Man of the Match performance.
In fact, only four players secured a higher WhoScored rating in the opening round of Premier League fixtures than McCarthy (8.49).
