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After John Terry's sudden retirement from international football following his claims of injustice against the FA, the spotlight has been on Roy Hodgson and who'd he select to replace the Chelsea captain. So naturally, when Hodgson made the selection by snubbing Rio Ferdinand in favor of Stoke's Ryan Shawcross, this dominated all the headlines. However, Hodgson also made another selection that has somewhat slipped under the collective radar, and that was rewarding Kieran Gibbs and his performances in all competitions to date with a place in the squad for England's next two matches that begin next Friday in a home match versus San Marino and ending with an away visit to Warsaw to take on Poland on October 16th. Gibbs has two previous senior team caps under his belt - both in 2010 - and he looks set to pick up where he left off before metatarsal injuries struck him down . Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott will be joining Gibbs on the squad this time around and Carl Jenkinson, widely speculated to earn an England call up this go-around, was snubbed in favor of Tottenham's Kyle Walker and Liverpool's Glen Johnson.
So far, Gibbs has shown that when he is healthy, he is both dangerous in attack and in defense. He's consistently been a force defensively, routinely winning possession with crisp, well-timed tackles, while also being a key cog in Arsenal's attack with the level of support he provides the left side of the pitch. Arsene Wenger placed a lot of faith in Gibbs' potential when he sold Gael Clichy to Manchester City last summer, and Gibbs' lack of presence in the Arsenal squad last season was dealy missed as the club struggled to find consistency from the left back position. England will surely want to see if Gibbs is up to the challenge of becoming their future mainstay at left back whenever Ashley Cole decides to hang up his boots, and while he would surely have to get past Leighton Baines to do so, so far Gibbs has shown he's certainly ready to stake his claim.
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