Palmer was forced to withdraw from last month’s squad following assessments by the England staff, meaning he missed the comfortable wins over Republic of Ireland and Finland. Since then Palmer has scored five more Premier League goals and earned a nomination for the Premier League Player of the Month. It was no surprise to see his name in Carsley’s squad list announced earlier today (Thursday).

Palmer’s outstanding recent form follows hot off the heels of a remarkable first campaign for the Blues, during which he received his maiden senior call-up and went on to score in the final of Euro 2024. Carsley, who worked closely with Palmer at youth level when they won the European Under-21 Championship last year, is not surprised to see him maintain his high levels of performance.

‘I’ve known Cole for a number of years and seen how he has progressed,’ said Carsley.

‘Every challenge you put in front of Cole, he takes in his stride. He doesn’t get too high and he doesn’t get too low. That’s a brilliant attribute to have as a professional footballer. It’s great to see him doing so well.’

Another Blue impressing this season is Levi Colwill. The defender, also very familiar to Carsley from their time together with the Under-21s, featured in both of England’s games last month at left-back. At his media conference today, Carsley explained why he is comfortable not having a traditional full-back in that position.

‘The ideal scenario is you have a left-footed player in that area who is comfortable on the ball,’ said Carsley.

‘We’ve got that with either Rico [Lewis], Trent [Alexander-Arnold] or Levi. We are quite lucky in that regard. We’ve also got really gifted wide players, so our width and our pace will mainly come from the wide players rather than the full-backs.’

England host Greece next Thursday 10 October before travelling to play Finland in Helsinki on Sunday 13 October, both Nations League fixtures.