Alfie Mawson, Swansea's new number six, has today received an international call-up for the first time. England U-21 caretaker boss Aidy  Boothroyd included Mawson in his 23-man squad to face Italy on the 10th November at Southampton's St. Mary's Stadium, as well as the game four days later in Paris, where the English will take on France, in preparation for the Euro Finals in Poland next year.

Although the youngstet has racked up almost 100 league appearances over three years in League Two with Wycombe Wanderers and League One with Barnsley, this will be Mawson's first taste of international football which is undoubtedly on the back of the former Barnsley mans impressive start to life in the Premier League.

Despite the poor result against Stoke and not mentioning the 22-year-olds own goal to wrap up the defeat, Mawson was definitely one of the silver linings to that disappointing Swansea performance, carrying on from his excellent debut the week before against Watford at the Liberty Stadium, where he displayed why there was a lot of hype surrounding the youngster before his big move to the top flight.

Mawson prodding the ball into the back of his own net | Getty Images

It looks unlikely that Mawson will be used in the U-21 Euro's Finals next year as he only has these two warm up games to state his claim. His task is not helped by the fact that the young Lions back four have looked solid and extremely hard to break down, conceding only three goals in the eight qualifying group games against the likes of Norway, Switzerland & Bosnia, winning six and drawing two. But if Mawson carries through the form of recent weeks into the two friendlies he will certainly give interim boss Boothroyd one hell of a headache when it comes to selecting the squad that will fly off to Poland in mid-June of 2017.

Although Mawson is 22-years-old and is seemingly too old for the Under 21 format, the ruling is that a player must be under 21 at the beginning of the calendar year that sees the start of a two-year UEFA European Under-21 Championship, meaning some players could be eligible for the competition even at 23.

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