The 32-year-old centre-back Amanda Ilestedt and 29-year-old striker Lina Hurtig have both been absent from the national team for over a year for various reasons.
Ilestedt took a break from football in March last year after becoming pregnant. Last autumn, she and partner Rainer Müller became parents to a daughter. She made her comeback in Arsenal at the end of January, her first match in almost a year.
Hurtig has had injury problems, among other things, and made her comeback in the club team Arsenal in October.
On Wednesday, Ilestedt and Hurtig were two of 26 players in national team captain Peter Gerhardsson's squad for the Nations League matches against Italy in Stockholm on Friday next week, April 4, and Wales in Gothenburg four days later. Both are competing for a spot in Gerhardsson's squad for the European Championship finals in Switzerland this summer.
One who is missing when the team gathers is, however, midfielder Rosa Kafaji, a teammate of Ilestedt and Hurtig in Arsenal, who has instead been selected for the U23 national team.
At the last major championship, the World Championship in Australia and New Zealand 2023, Amanda Ilestedt emerged as one of Sweden's key players and showed the way to the World Championship bronze with her four goals. Lina Hurtig was also there and scored, among other things, a notable penalty in the World Championship round of 16 against the USA, which was reviewed with VAR.
David Hjorter/TT
Facts: Sweden's squad
TT
Goalkeepers: Tove Enblom, Jennifer Falk, Emma Holmgren.
Defenders: Jonna Andersson, Nathalie Björn, Magdalena Eriksson, Amanda Ilestedt, Emma Kullberg, Hanna Lundkvist, Amanda Nildén, Anna Sandberg, Linda Sembrant, Hanna Wijk.
Midfielders/forwards: Filippa Angeldahl, Kosovare Asllani, Hanna Bennison, Stina Blackstenius, Rebecka Blomqvist, Lina Hurtig, Sofia Jakobsson, Madelen Janogy, Cornelia Kapocs, Fridolina Rolfö, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Matilda Vinberg, Julia Zigiotti Olme.
