England centre-back Gary Cahill has said that he is excited by the squad selected for Euro 2016 this summer.

Roy Hodgson's provisional 26-man selection contained surprise inclusions for the likes of Marcus Rashford and Andros Townsend, although they could yet be left behind when the squad is cut to the final 23-man roster.

Cahill is confident that there is enough quality in the squad to do well in France, though, with the main core of the team having helped the Three Lions to a perfect qualifying record.

"It is certainly a very good squad. It is an exciting squad," the Chelsea man told BBC Radio 5 live.

"It is a squad that has, not all of us but a lot of, been together now for two years and gone through the qualification campaign together and worked hard to get to where we are now.

"We feel like we've progressed so, for me, it's a very good squad and as an England player and fan an exciting squad."

There were some eyebrows raised when Hodgson selected only three out-and-out centre-backs - Cahill, Chris Smalling and John Stones - but the presence of the versatile Eric Dier means that Cahill is not worried about a lack of depth being exposed.

"There's three centre-halves there and Eric can fill in in that role. You look at it as three centre-halves or do you look at it as four?" he added.

"There's the option there for the manager and ultimately he has decided to go that way. I don't see that being a big deal whatsoever, I see that as being perfectly fine."

Cahill is expected to captain England for only the second time when they take on Turkey at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.