Source: BBC Football
Does ‘timeless wonder’ Welbeck deserve England recall?To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be playedMedia caption,Gomez shines as Brighton breeze through win against LeedsByAlex BrothertonBBC Sport journalistPublished1 November 2025356 CommentsDanny Welbeck has not played for England since September 2018. Seven years on, he is in the form of his life and could be set to make the unlikeliest of international comebacks.A close-range finish in Brighton’s3-0 winover Leeds on Saturday was Welbeck’s sixth goal in 10 Premier League games and he is this season’s most prolific English scorer in the competition.The 34-year-old has notched in his past three league games, the longest streak of a career that has seen him score in 17 different Premier League campaigns.On Friday Thomas Tuchel will name his England squad for World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Albania later this month, and the German has a reputation for picking players based on form.Welbeck, who will be 35 by the time the 2026 World Cup kicks off in June, has every right to be confident of adding to his 42 caps and 16 international goals, but he has remained coy on the matter.”I’m feeling good,” Welbeck said on the BBC’s Final Score programme on Saturday. “I’ve been getting the goals more than I have previously.”Before I have had better performances but maybe not got the goals. I am feeling fit, strong and the only thing I can focus on is controlling what I can control and the rest will sort itself out.”I am really enjoying my football, focusing on the next game with Brighton.”That strategy certainly seems to be working for Welbeck. His six goals this term have come in five league games and he is the Premier League’s top scorer since his streak began on 27 September.”He’s a timeless wonder,” former Premier League defender Nedum Onuoha told BBC Sport”What a guy. He’s scoring goals and I think he’s the most efficient striker.”‘He knows he is going to be part of that conversation’Image source,Getty ImagesImage caption,Welbeck last played for England in a 1-0 friendly win against Switzerland in September 2018Having scored six goals from seven shots on target, Welbeck is on track to surpass the career-best 10 top-flight goals he scored last season.Several different strikers have played second fiddle to Harry Kane in recent years, but none are currently enjoying the kind of purple patch Welbeck is.”If you look at the forward options in Tuchel’s last squad there aren’t many obvious stand-ins for Harry Kane,” Alan Shearer told BBC Sport.”Anthony Gordon, Jarrod Bowen, Bukayo Saka aren’t going to fill that role and Ollie Watkins hasn’t been firing for Aston Villa, so any English striker scoring goals in the Premier League is going to be talked about.”It’s seven years since Welbeck’s last cap and he’s 35 this month but Tuchel isn’t worried about the future. His only focus is the six weeks of the World Cup so there’s no reason why Welbeck couldn’t be invol…
Published: 2025-11-01T19:07:10
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