Despite being part of Sweden’s squad at the Euros, Pontus Jansson never set foot on the pitch, sitting on the bench for all four of his country’s games.
Following that, he announced his retirement from international football on August 21st, and he hasn’t been called up or featured for his nation, with everyone respecting his wish.
However, with Filip Helander out for the rest of the World Cup qualifiers and a chance that Marcus Danielson will have to miss the November games due to Chinese quarantine rules, a slot is there for Jansson to fill if he so desires, but it ultimately rests on Janne Andersson, Sweden’s manager.
Fotbollskanalen asked him about the whole Jansson situation, and wondered if he was ‘eager to pick up the phone’ to try and convince the Brentford defender to come back on his decision for the upcoming fixtures.
He said: “No, I haven’t, but I don’t close a door because I might do it. Then we’ll see what he answers, but in such cases, it may be after this set of games.
“I felt we should run for this gang for these matches, then we get to evaluate and see what happens after. We’ll see. I told ‘Ponne’ when he quit this summer that he can change his mind, and we’ll see down the line”.
Andersson added he didn’t want to ‘speculate’ on whether Danielson’s potential quarantine issue could further trigger the matter, so it remains a wait and see situation for the Brentford captain and his potential coming out of retirement to help his country.
Picking up his first cap in 2012, Jansson only managed to get 26 others over the past nine years, with his last coming in a 3-0 loss to Portugal in the UEFA Nations League back on October 14th 2020.
