Stephan El Shaarawy’s recent form for Roma has raised his hopes of an Italy recall. Giampiero Ventura’s first two Azzurri squads have been devoid of the 23-year-old attacker, who has since scored two goals in his last two appearances for his club.

“It’s something I’m always thinking about,” said El Shaarawy, who represented Italy from U-16 to U21 level and has netted thrice in 20 senior internationals. “I’ve always been part of the national team. I love playing .

“Hopefully I can play well in the upcoming matches. There’s a lot of competition for places here, but the coach has had faith in me.

“Competition is normal at a big club, but I’ve never been worried about it. My goal now is to return to return to the national team through Roma.”

Italy trail Group G leaders Spain on goal difference in Europe’s 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ preliminaries. Albania and Israel are a point behind. Italy are away to Liechtenstein in November in their final qualifier of 2016.

The last World Cup La Nazionale missed out on was Sweden 1958.

El Shaarawy impressed at the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2013, but an injury-ravaged campaign hurt his chances of going to Brazil 2014. The former AC Milan player made just one appearance, from the bench, at UEFA EURO 2016.