Stuart Pearce will reveal on Tuesday whether he intends to take Jack Wilshere and Andy Carroll to the European Under-21 Championship when he names his provisional England squad for this summer's tournament.
All the indications are Arsenal midfielder Wilshere and Liverpool striker Carroll will be in the 40-man party announced by Pearce at Southampton's St Mary's Stadium.
The England U21 head coach has already said he wants both involved at the finals in Denmark, despite vocal opposition from Gunners boss Arsene Wenger.
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has refused to give an opinion on Carroll's selection until the £35million striker is actually named in the squad.
The views of Carroll, who scored his first senior international goal in March's friendly against Ghana, are also unclear but Wilshere has made no secret of the fact he would love to be involved.
"It can only be good for my career," he said in March. "If you look at the Germans, when they won the Under-21 tournament, they went to the World Cup and had such a good tournament.
"It's important to start winning international tournaments early and hopefully you can take it to the world stage."
Wenger believes Wilshere, who now has four senior caps, should no longer be considered for the Under-21s and fears the 19-year-old could suffer burnout after a gruelling season.
But Pearce wants the strongest possible squad available to him and recent results would suggest that is imperative, with England's sole victory since qualifying coming in the only game where they did not suffer a raft of withdrawals - March's 4-0 thrashing of Denmark.
That squad, supplemented by Wilshere and Carroll, would automatically be one of the favourites for the tournament, along with Group B rivals Spain.
Source: PA
