Colchester's on-loan Crystal Palace keeper Owen Goodman gets call-up

The highly-rated shot-stopper, who is on a season-long loan at the U's from Premier League side Crystal Palace, has been picked for an England men’s under-20s training camp at St George’s Park as they prepare to start the new Euro U20 Elite League, in October.

Goodman is set to miss Colchester's home clash with Tranmere Rovers this Saturday as a result of his call-up, with Tom Smith standing by to make his first start for the U's since joining them permanently in the summer.

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The 19-year-old is part of a 24-strong Young Lions group to assemble for five days of work on the training pitch.

Goodman joined Colchester on a season-long loan from Palace, earlier this summer.

He has made six appearances so far for the U's and kept his first clean sheet in his side's 3-0 victory at Gillingham, at the end of last month.

Colchester head coach Ben Garner has been pleased with Goodman's performances since joining the club.

Garner said: “Owen’s been great since coming in.

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“I think he’s going to have a wonderful career and he’s only going to get better for us, this season."

England under-20s will start their games next month with a trip to play Romania in Bucharest on October 12 before they host Portugal.

Goodman will meet up with the England squad at the national football centre in Burton-on-Trent today, until Saturday, September 9.

The England under-20 squad contains five players who featured for the MU20s last season, with Ronnie Edwards, Bash Humphreys, Jarell Quansah, Alfie Devine and Darko Gyabi all playing at the FIFA U20 World Cup in Argentina and remain young enough to represent the MU20s again this term.

There are also players who were part of last season's MU19s squad who reached the 2023 UEFA U19 EURO elite qualifying round in March but missed out on a place in the Finals.