Northampton's Manchester United loanee trains with England's senior team
Ethan Wheatley, Northampton’s young striker on loan from Manchester United, joined the likes of Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka when called up to train with England's senior squad last week.
The 19-year-old was again selected to represent England Under-20s during the most recent international break but, prior to that, he had a day training alongside the country’s best players as they prepared for their friendly against Wales at Wembley.
He then came on as a second half sub for the Under-20s in their defeat to Switzerland at St. George's Park last Friday before he headed straight back down to the M1 to make the Northampton squad for Saturday’s home game against Rotherham.
“It was a busy week,” said Wheatley. “One day I was training with the senior squad helping them prep for the Wales game and then I played a good 35 minutes with England Under-20s on Friday and then had to come on early against Rotherham.
"Training with England was a great experience. It’s an opportunity for me to learn. It’s obviously the top level of the game and those are all players that you look up to and want to be like in the future so it was good to be around them and hopefully I can kick on and be around them more.”
Wheatley was scheduled to play no more than half-an-hour for Cobblers against Rotherham after his exploits for England Under-20s the night before, but an early injury to Jack Vale left Kevin Nolan with no choice.
"I didn’t expect to play so many minutes,” admitted Wheatley. “I was hoping to come on and put a shift in but obviously I had to go on a bit earlier after Valey’s injury. I was ready to do a job and put everything out there for the team.
"I thought we were the better team in the first half and we deserved to go in 1-0 up. But we were off it in the second half. Maybe we took our foot off the gas a little bit but they did what we want to do to teams and it’s even more disappointing that it happened at our own ground.
"It was just the basics. The gaffer’s gone over it – first and second contacts. Rotherham just dominated that aspect of the game, especially second half, and it was similar to Wycombe. We’ll reflect on it and we need a reaction against Doncaster.”