ENGLAND are back in action following their World Cup heartbreak.
Thomas Tuchel‘s side achieved the Three Lions’ best finish in a major men’s World Cup since 1966 with their third-place in North America.
They are back in action for the first time since the tournament against world champions, Spain, in the Nations League.
However, that got us thinking, who are the best one-cap England stars?
SunSport have looked at the record books to come up with the best Three Lions XI of stars who have earned a single cap.
That list includes Premier League and Champions League winners as well as club icons and national heroes.
We’ll start with a pair of names who aren’t necessarily in our starting XI, but stars who are actually in the current squad looking to break the one-cap curse.
Those stars are Liverpool’s Rio Ngumoha and Everton‘s Jarrad Branthwaite.
The pair both have a single cap to their names.
But while Branthwaite could double his tally if he plays tonight, Ngumoha won’t have the opportunity to after being cut from the squad due to a little-known rule on the eve of the game.
Alex Scott is another star who could join the list of one-cap England stars and then eclipse it during over the next couple of weeks.
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But regarding players who are no longer active, we will start in goal with Nigel Spink, a European Cup winner with Aston Villa in 1982 who made over 450 appearances for the Villans.
Alternatively, Manchester United icon Alex Stepney could wear the gloves, having been in goal for the Red Devils when they won the league in 1967 and then when they became the first English side to win the European Cup a year later.
He only made one national team appearance due to playing in the era of the likes of Gordon Banks and Peter Bonetti.
In defence we have selected Bill Nicholson, Neil “Razor” Ruddock, Bill Foulkes and Tony Kay.
Tottenham icon Bill Nicholson was a half-back turned wing-half who scored on his international debut against Portugal in 1951 after only 19 seconds with his first touch.
Injuries plagued him and prevented him from earning any more caps, but he remained a key player for Spurs and won the league title with the legendary “push and run” team that won the league in 1951.
Ruddock was a centre-half who played for the likes of Tottenham, Millwall, Southampton, Liverpool and West Ham, earning one England cap in 1994 before he was voted the “17th hardest footballer of all time”
Foulkes was one of the legendary Busby Babes of Man Utd and a survivor of the Munich Air Disaster, and ranks fourth in all-time appearances for United.
The centre-half won the title in 1956, 1957 before the crash but was part of the resurgent team which went on to win again in 1965 and 1967 before also winning the 1968 European Cup.
Kay is the most infamous player in this team because of the betting scandal which ended his career in 1964, but before that he was a league and Charity Shield winner with Everton and made a solo England cap in 1963.
David Unsworth, an FA Cup winner with Everton in 1995, is a close honourable mention at left-back.
In midfield we have the trio of Steve Perryman, Colin Harvey and Lee Bowyer.
Perryman is Tottenham’s all-time record holder for appearances and won the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year award in 1982, he also won the FA Cup twice.
Harvey was one of Everton’s “Holy Trinity” and dubbed the “White Pele” by supporters, also winning the league and FA Cup with the Toffees.
Bowyer featured for the likes of Charlton, Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle, Ipswich and Birmingham in a stunning career, he was part of Uefa Cup and Champions League semi-finals runs with Leeds and won the League Cup with Birmingham in 2011.
In attack, we have Chris Sutton, Charlie George and Francis Jeffers.
Sutton was part of the famous “SAS” strikeforce with Alan Shearer that fired Blackburn to the title in 1995, with his form seeing him earn an England cap in 1997.
Charlie George was a league and FA Cup winner with Arsenal before winning the Super Cup with Nottingham Forest in 1979 and winning Derby’s Player of the Year award in 1976.
And fellow Gunners star Francis Jeffers won two league titles with Arsenal and scored on his only England appearance.
David Nugent has an identical England record with his solo goal against Andorra.
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