Southampton: Jan Bednarek named in provisional Poland squad for World Cup

Today Southampton defender Jan Bednarek has been named in his national side’s provisional 35-man squad for the upcoming World Cup in Russia.

The call-up is just rewards for some fantastic effort from the Polish centre-back in recent weeks, having been brought in against Chelsea following Jack Stephens’ red card in the game against Arsenal the week before.

Since then the 22-year-old has been a mainstay in the Southampton back-line, even keeping Stephens on the bench once he had returned from his three-match ban. It was only through Maya Yoshida’s sending off against Everton that the Englishman was able to return to the Southampton defence.

Bednarek scored on his Premier League debut as well, playing a solid game against the Blues despite the fact he had only featured twice for the Saints all campaign under Mauricio Pellegrino – it begs the question as to why Argentine had such little faith in the centre-back.

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Of course, there’s no guarantee that Bednarek will definitely travel with his country to the tournament this summer, with the squad having to be trimmed by around a third to just 23 players by the first week of June.

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However, in the early days following his £6 million move from his native country, the 22-year-old was regularly named in his national squad – the issue was he only actually featured on the one occasion.

With that being said, outside of the experienced Kamil Glik, it’s arguable that the Polish national side aren’t blessed with a huge amount of talented centre-halves, meaning there is a good chance that Bednarek could make the cut.

His versatility – having shown he can play at right-back in the FA Cup – should also put in him in good stead, especially based off of his recent form with a Southampton side who may of just avoided relegation.

However Bednarek may or may not feature this weekend for his club – he was taken off with a suspected head injury in the win over Swansea on Tuesday, and we will only know his fate in Mark Hughes press conference later today.