Jarvis not well-acquainted with team

London: It is a reflection of the journey that Matt Jarvis has made to an England call-up that he admitted on Tuesday to not personally knowing any of the 25 other players in the squad.

But then, up until Fabio Capello named his squad on Sunday evening, Jarvis's last involvement in a ‘representative' team had been at county level — for the Surrey under-16s.

There has been nothing since. Not one single call-up at any level. "It's some jump and a very strange feeling," the Wolverhampton Wanderers winger admitted. "But I'm delighted the way I have done it. I've missed out on the [England under] 17s, 19s and 21s."

With that background and having emerged through the lower leagues with Millwall — where he was released as a schoolboy — Gillingham and Wolves, it's little surprise that Jarvis, 25 in May, is not well-acquainted with players such as Michael Dawson and Joe Hart.

"I didn't know anyone in the team personally," Jarvis said. "So it felt like the first day of school again. It was good to meet them all yesterday, speak to them and get to know them a bit better."

There was also the ice-breaker of a few games of table tennis — with Jarvis beating both Dawson and Hart. But then his parents, Nick and Linda, were England internationals at the sport and were both No 1 in the national rankings in the 1970s and their son is an accomplished all-rounder.

"I'm OK at table tennis," Jarvis said. "I was a bit rusty on Monday night [when the squad met up] but I played a couple of games."