MIDDLESBROUGH winger Stewart Downing's UEFA Cup heroics have landed him a dream trip to the World Cup finals. The 21-year-old midfielder, for so long touted as the answer to England's perennial left-sided problem, was a surprise inclusion in Sven-Goran Eriksson's 23-man squad for Germany named this afternoon after returning to form in the nick of time.

Downing's chances of making the plane looked to have gone when he was sidelined until January by a knee injury initially picked up on international duty in America last summer.

On his return, he struggled to rediscover the form which had won him his first - and to date only - full cap 11 months previously after a blistering start to his senior career on Teesside.

Eriksson also included teenage striker Theo Walcott in his squad alongside Newcastle's Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Aaron Lennon - but there are no places for Ledley King, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Jermaine Defoe or Darren Bent.

Walcott, 17, has not played first-team football since his 12m move from Southampton in January but is regarded as one of the hottest talents in the game and Eriksson has decided to include him in his squad.

Manchester United forward Rooney's broken metatarsal is expected to rule him out of the start of the tournament but Eriksson decided to gamble on his talisman's fitness as expected.

Owen's prolonged recovery from a similar injury has severely limited his match practice and he will head to the finals having played only 31 minutes for his club since December 31.

Sven-Goran Eriksson's provisional squad for the World Cup finals in Germany: Robinson (Tottenham), James (Manchester City), Green (Norwich), G Neville (Manchester United), R Ferdinand (Manchester United), Terry (Chelsea), A Cole (Arsenal), Campbell (Arsenal), Carragher (Liverpool), Bridge (Chelsea), Beckham (Real Madrid), Carrick (Tottenham), Lampard (Chelsea), Gerrard (Liverpool), Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Jenas (Totenham), Downing (Middlesbrough), J Cole (Chelsea), Lennon (Tottenham), Rooney (Manchester United), Owen (Newcastle), Crouch (Liverpool), Walcott (Arsenal).

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