It was hardly a shock along the lines of Glenn Hoddle leaving out Paul Gascoigne in 1998 or Sven-Goran Eriksson picking Theo Walcott in 2006, but one of the most eye-catching inclusions in Roy Hodgson's England squad for Euro 2016 was Jack Wilshere.
Hodgson has been a long-term fan of Wilshere, pointedly bringing up his name on a number of occasions, despite the Arsenal midfielder missing the majority of this season with a broken leg. Wilshere has played just 141 minutes of club football since suffering the injury last summer, the latest ailment to keep him out of the game for an extended period of time ensuring that, while he has been on the scene for nearly eight years, in terms of game time he's actually pretty inexperienced.
Wilshere made his Arsenal debut in 2008, and since then he has started just 80 games for the first team: by way of comparison, Nacho Monreal, who arrived at the club in January 2013 and hasn't always been a first-choice in that time, has 84 starts.
Wilshere's inclusion in the squad is obviously a gamble purely on the basis that he has barely played this season. It's not just match practice and fitness that should be a concern to Hodgson, but the simple possibility of Wilshere breaking down again. Part of the problem with treating the midfielder must be the sheer number and range of his injuries, from bone fractures to ligament damage to ankle sprains: of course there's no way of guaranteeing any player will not suddenly be struck down in unexpected circumstances, but with Wilshere, history tells us it's much more likely.
But it's also a gamble in terms of Wilshere's potential role in the side. When Hodgson has picked Wilshere before, it has been as a deep-lying playmaker, an ersatz Andrea Pirlo. While those games weren't exactly the most stringent of tests, it did actually work quite nicely. However, the England team have moved on in his absence: in recent games Hodgson has broadly used two formations: the 4-2-3-1/4-2-1-3 in which Eric Dier has looked excellent in a deep role but with someone alongside him, and the midfield diamond with Dier at the base.
Wilshere could theoretically slot in quite nicely next to Dier in the first system, performing a similar role to the one Mousa Dembele does at Spurs, but omitting the Tottenham man in place of Wilshere in the diamond would be a big risk. The centre of England's defence is the weakest area of the team, and while Wilshere does a reasonable share of tackling and defensive work, to only have him as a protective screen in front of John Stones/Gary Cahill/Chris Smalling would surely leave England too open.
Another factor that must be a consideration is Wayne Rooney. Wilshere's place in the side is linked with Rooney's in a way that might not be immediately obvious, but a closer look suggests it might have to be one or the other. If we take the view that Wilshere cannot be the deepest man in a midfield diamond, and he can only play alongside Dier, that leaves the two likely roles for Rooney, as either a No.10/attacking midfielder, or a centre-forward.
That means Hodgson basically has to pick two from Rooney, Dele Alli and Harry Kane. It's almost impossible to consider leaving either Tottenham man out, so good have they been this season, so the only other way to get Rooney into the team would be to play him out wide. Surely even the England captain's biggest apologists can't make the case for him as a winger at this stage of his career.
Rooney could play alongside Kane (and this is even before we consider where Jamie Vardy comes in), but to fit Wilshere into the role in which he has excelled would require dropping Dier, losing the cover this defence needs rather badly. Assuming Hodgson is desperately keen to get Rooney into the side, it would probably require leaving out one of the season's best domestic performers, or Wilshere.
There is one way to fit all six in, though: with Kane and Vardy up front, Rooney at the point of a midfield diamond, Alli right and Wilshere left, then Dier in the holding role. That might also solve the problems presented by Danny Welbeck's injury: without the Arsenal man, Hodgson isn't exactly blessed with quality wide options, so using wingers would probably require playing someone who is either out of position or out of form. However, that does smack rather of squeezing the best/most favoured players into a system, plus it relies on Rooney being an effective midfielder: the evidence from his play for Manchester United in that role are patchy, at best.
That all said; this is not to say Hodgson's decision to include Wilshere is incorrect. There are circumstances in which someone who can smartly keep possession would be incredibly useful, and Hodgson does appear to -- with good reason -- place almost as much stock in how a player performs for England as he does his club side, which is partly why Welbeck's injury was such a big setback.
His faith in Wilshere is not purely based on the old "form is temporary, class is permanent" cliche, but on seeing him perform at the closest of quarters. In the end, whichever decision Hodgson made with regards to Wilshere represents something of a gamble. We shall now see whether it pays off.