Euro 2016: Jack Wilshere prepared for England return to prove fitness

Almost one year since his last England appearance, Jack Wilshere will start against Turkey

Wilshere has been included in England's squad for Euro 2016 (Getty)

Jack Wilshere will make his first England appearance for almost a whole year on Sunday when England face Turkey at the Etihad Stadium in the first of their preparation friendlies before Euro 2016.

Roy Hodgson has taken a risk by including Wilshere, who missed almost the whole of the season with a broken leg, but wants to give the Arsenal midfielder every chance to prove his fitness before the European Championship next month. Hodgson chose an initial group of 26 last week largely because he is waiting to see if Wilshere and Jordan Henderson – recovering from a knee injury – will be fit to play. Only then will Hodgson trim his squad from 26 to 23, after the Australia game next weekend.

Wilshere has been training with England at St George’s Park all week but this will be another important test in his attempts to prove he is up to the physical demands of tournament football. Having broken his leg in training last August, Wilshere did not return for Arsenal under-21s until early April. He made three Premier League appearances at the end of the season, lasting 6, 66 and 69 minutes long.

But the last time he played a whole 90 minutes was his last England appearance, the 3-2 win in Slovenia in which he scored twice. Hodgson has repeatedly pointed to that game since as proof that Wilshere is a talent worth taking a risk on. Or as Hodgson put it at the squad announcement, “a special player”.

It will remain to be seen, against a talented and competitive Turkey side, whether Wilshere still has the sharpness required to make sure he stays in the squad. He will likely line up alongside Dele Alli in the middle of a 4-4-2 diamond system which is set to be Hodgson’s preferred approach in France. Alli had not even played in the Premier League, never mind for England, when Wilshere starred in Ljubljana, but he is now the one certain starter in an unsettled midfield.

Jordan Henderson is the other question-mark in Hodgson’s team having missed almost six weeks with a knee injury sustained at Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League in April. He came back to play 26 minutes on the last day of the Premier League season but was not involved in the Europa League final. That final held up his joining up with the England squad, though, and none of the Liverpool players will be considered for selection on Sunday afternoon.

Henderson will have to prove his fitness against Australia next Friday, then, or else he will surely be replaced in the squad by Fabian Delph.

“The mere fact Henderson is in contention is an enormous bonus,” Hodgson said. “When the injury occurred, we were told to work on the basis that it would keep him out of the Euros, because it would take a longer recovery time. He, alongside Jack, are the reasons we have extended our squad from the usual 23 to 26 because we do need to assess them.”

Hodgson re-iterated that he would need to be convinced of the readiness of those two players for them to make his 23.

“We do need to be sure that if we are going to select them, they will be the Jordan Henderson and the Jack Wilshere that we know and not players that are recovering to be that player again,” Hodgson said. “We have to be satisfied with them. An international tournament puts an awful of demand on a player physically.”

With no Manchester United players involved either, because of Saturday’s FA Cup final, Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy are the only two available strikers and they will start together up front. Wayne Rooney, Chris Smalling and Marcus Rashford will join up with the England squad early next week.