FRASER Forster has revealed his optimism for an England team “blessed with talent” at Euro 2016 after hitting his post-injury target of breaking back into the Three Lions squad.

The Saints goalkeeper only made his return from a long-term knee problem back in January, but has since helped Ronald Koeman’s side to their best-ever Premier League finish and broken back into Roy Hodgson’s team for the tournament that starts in France next month.

Forster, who recorded six clean sheets in a row immediately after his injury return and in turn set a new 708-minute club record for the longest run without conceding, said that there’s big reason to be excited as he headed off for Euro warm-up games.

“I missed the first half of the season really, but I think it’s a great squad to be involved in,” Forster said. “There’s a lot of young players who have had fantastic seasons and there’s a real reason to be positive about what we can achieve going into the summer.

“If we go there and just take it one game at a time, with everyone backing us and supporting us, we can go and have a real crack at it.”

England face Turkey at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium on Sunday before two further preparation matches against Australia (May 27) and Portugal (June 2).

They will then kick-off their Euro campaign against Russia at Marseille’s Stade Velodrome on June 11.

Forster will more than likely be back-up shot stopper behind firstchoice Joe Hart, as he was at the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.

It is a very youthful looking initial 26-man England squad that Hodgson has selected, which includes just ten survivors from the World Cup two years ago.

“There’s obviously a lot of new faces compared to at the World Cup,” Forster said.

“You look at the quality of the players we’ve got and what they’ve achieved this season for their clubs. We’re blessed with a lot of England talent at the minute. It’ll be an exciting summer.”

On the road to recovery from a ruptured tendon in his left knee, Forster had one eye on the prize of a call-up.

“For me it was just an opportunity to work as hard as I could and come back in better shape and stronger than I was before,” he explains.

“I think everyone bought into that from within the club and the medical staff did a fantastic job and I just hit the ground running when I came back. That’s credit to them.

“It was always the target for me to get in the squad for the summer and I’ve managed to do that. I just want to keep moving forward.”