Albert Celades: "I'm worried that Ceballos isn't playing..."
Spain's Under-21s meet Northern Ireland and Estonia in friendlies on 22 and 27 March; Adama Traoré (Middlesbrough), Francis (Betis) and Aleix García (Girona) called up.
Spain Under-21s coach Albert Celades named a 21-man squad for this month's friendlies against Northern Ireland and Estonia. There were three new faces in the list with respect to the last squad list - Middlesbrough's Adama Traoré and Betis' Francis are among four players who have received their first call-up at U21 level.
During his press conference in Las Rozas this afternoon, Celades expressed concern at Dani Ceballos' situation at Real Madrid. The midfielder has played a total of just 714 minutes this season.
Ceballos: "It worries me that he's not getting regular playing time. For us, we would prefer him to be getting more minutes but that's part of the deal when you are at one of the elite clubs. He is still a very important player as far as we are concerned, I have full faith in him.
"I've spoken to Dani. His problem is the competition he faces in his team. We all know that he is a magnificent footballer - even Zidane has said so himself. He knows where he is and the only thing on his mind is battling to change his situation".
Francis, Juan Soriano and Adama rewarded
New faces: "There are players like Francis who have never played in any of the youth categories, but he's been doing really well. Aleix, was with us during one preparatory week before the Euros and Adama is doing really well at Boro and this was the right moment to call him up".