NEWTON Abbot’s Ollie Watkins has not fallen foul of Thomas Tuchel’s bizarre selection policy and will feature for England at the World Cup next month.

The German boss has raised eyebrows up and down the country by excluding the likes of Cole Palmer, Harry Maguire, Jarrod Bowen, Phil Foden and Trent Alexander-Arnold to name just a handful.

On the flipside, the inclusion of players such as Djed Spence, Ivan Toney, John Stones and Jordan Henderson comes as a surprise to most.

Watkins will still be on a high after winning the Europa League with Aston Villa on Wednesday evening, his side beating Freiburg by three goals to nil in Istanbul.

The former Exeter City forward, who played for Buckland Athletic as a youngster, has enjoyed a fairytale story taking him to the pinnacle of the sport and he has since cemented his spot as a Premier League star.

He reached double figures for goals in all three Championship campaigns with Brentford and has continued that trend in the top-flight while wearing the claret and blue of Villa.

Ahead of the final game of the season, which takes Unai Emery’s men to runners-up Manchester City, Watkins has notched 14 times which looks all the more impressive considering the dry patches he has faced along the way.

In his last 13 games (in all competitions), the 30-year-old has scored 10 times and provided four assists for his teammates. One of those assists was for Morgan Rogers, who will also be on the plane going across the Atlantic next month.

England’s captain Harry Kane is the nailed-on starter in the number nine position with Watkins and Ivan Toney (Al-Ahli) waiting in the wings to impact games from the bench.

Looking at his record for the national team and Watkins has scored six times in 20 caps, four of those goals coming at Wembley Stadium. His most famous England strike was in Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion/Signal Iduna Park though, picking out the bottom corner from an impossible angle to send his country to the Euro 2024 final.

He showed under Gareth Southgate that he has the capability to make the difference as a substitute and Ollie Watkins will be hoping to replicate this in the US.