Shropshire’s Joe Hart today fulfilled his World Cup destiny after being all but assured of a place in Fabio Capello’s England squad for South Africa.

Former Shrewsbury Town goalkeeper Hart was named in the 30-man party which will jet out for a two-part training camp in Austria next week.

England will also play friendlies against Mexico (May 24) and Japan (May 30) before the final squad is whittled down to 23 on Tuesday, June 1.

But with only three goalkeepers named in the squad – Robert Green and David James are the other two – Hart can safely assume he will be part of the footballing showpiece which begins in a little over four weeks.

Virtually from the moment Hart made his Football League debut for Shrewsbury as a 17-year-old in 2005, the former Meole Brace School pupil has been touted as an England star in-waiting.

And the 23-year-old has done his cause no harm this season by shining for Birmingham to edge out fellow goalkeeping hopefuls Paul Robinson and Ben Foster of Blackburn and Manchester United respectively.

Capello has made his selection at a time when Hart and Foster are involved in an intriguing transfer riddle with their clubs.

Displays

Hart has produced a series of eye-catching displays for Birmingham, capitalising on the regular football he has enjoyed during his season-long loan from Manchester City.

But City have indicated that Hart, signed from Town for an initial £750,00, would not be allowed to return to Birmingham for another campaign, and Blues boss Alex McLeish now looks set to sign Foster from United for a fee of more than £4m.

That would leave Hart battling with Shay Given for the No 1 jersey at Eastlands, although there are rumours that Arsene Wenger could be interested in taking the Shropshire ace to Arsenal.

Elsewhere in the squad, Jamie Carragher and Ledley King were the shock call-ups.

Neither Carragher nor King has played a game for the Three Lions under Capello.