Pickford’s the No 1 choice for Southgate

JORDAN Pickford appears to have won the race to be England’s firstchoice goalkeeper at the World Cup after being handed the No 1 jersey.

The confirmation of England’s 23-man squad was listed on the FIFA website and contained no last-minute changes to the names originally selected by manager Gareth Southgate last month.

Former Sunderland goalkeeper Pickford seemed to be in pole position as he was handed the gloves for Saturday’s warm-up match at home to Nigeria.

The 24-year-old Wearsider has just three senior caps but has been backed by Southgate and now looks set to start for the Three Lions in Russia.

Jack Butland and Nick Pope are England’s other goalkeepers for the tournament after Joe Hart, who featured in nine of the 10 qualifiers, was left out.

Elsewhere, captain Harry Kane will sport the No 9 while Tottenham team-mate Dele Alli will wear 20 – in keeping with their Spurs squad numbers.

Uncapped Liverpool full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold, who could make his debut in Thursday’s friendly against Costa Rica, has been given the number 22 shirt.

Although no longer a simple case of picking numbers 1-11 in a starting line-up, the fact that Harry Maguire and Jesse Lingard have been given numbers six and seven respectively leads to a suggestion both look set to feature prominently in Russia.

If Southgate sticks with the formation he has trialled in recent times, there looks set to be only one place in midfield for either Jordan Henderson, another ex-Sunderland star, or Eric Dier.

The game against Costa Rica at Elland Road will be the last match before the squad fly out to Russia, providing Southgate with an opportunity to make any final tactical tweaks and take a look at some other players who did not feature in the 2-1 win over Nigeria. ENGLAND’S World Cup squad: 1 Jordan Pickford (pictured) 2 Kyle Walker 3 Danny Rose 4 Eric Dier 5 John Stones 6 Harry Maguire 7 Jesse Lingard 8 Jordan Henderson 9 Harry Kane 10 Raheem Sterling 11 Jamie Vardy 12 Kieran Trippier 13 Jack Butland 14 Danny Welbeck 15 Gary Cahill 16 Phil Jones 17 Fabian Delph 18 Ashley Young 19 Marcus Rashford 20 Dele Alli 21 Ruben Loftus-Cheek 22 Trent Alexander-Arnold