ALEX McCarthy has been told to stay patient following his snub by England.

Royals’ 23-year-old keeper was called into the squad by Three Lions boss Roy Hodgson for friendlies against Brazil and Republic of Ireland.

But he has been overlooked ever since despite a number of outstanding games for Reading.

Instead, Hodgson has selected Joe Hart, Fraser Forster and John Ruddy for their crunch World Cup qualifiers against Montenegro tomorrow and Poland next Tuesday.

But Royals assistant manager Andy Crosby is confident McCarthy’s time will come.

“He’s performing for Reading and that’s all he can do,” stressed Crosby. “It’s up to Roy Hodgson and his staff to keep an eye out for him and watch his progression.

“He’s a young English goalkeeper with previous with the England squad so I know they have been to our place to watch him.

“If he continues to improve he’s got a great career ahead of him.”

While McCarthy and the majority of Reading’s squad will enjoy a weekend off, a number of players will be on international duty over the next week.

Chris Baird is away with Northern Ireland while Wales pair Chris Gunter and Hal Robson-Kanu face World Cup qualifiers against Macedonia and Belgium.

Jobi McAnuff and Shaun Cummings have been called up by Jamaica, with Garath McCleary poised to join them if he recovers from a knock.

Stephen Kelly (Republic of Ireland) and Kaspars Gorkss (Latvia) are also away on duty.

Gorkss has lost his place in the Reading side to centre-backs Alex Pearce and skipper Sean Morrison, but Adkins said: “Kaspars has been a top, top professional.

“You can see why he captains his nation. Unfortunately he’s not been able to start ahead of our two youngsters.”