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Despite Cesc Fabregas’ form and increased game time for Chelsea in recent times, the 29-year-old still missed out of the invitation to represent his national team in the forthcoming games against Israel and France.

Speaking about Fabregas’ omission, Spain’s national team boss Julen Lopetegui said: “It’s true that Cesc is playing more minutes in his team and it’s true that we’ve also thought about his inclusion, we had Cesc in our minds.

“It’s not easy to finalise the list, there are a lot of players on the pre-list which we like, but in the end we’ve finalised the squad with the players we feel have to have more presence with us. But we don’t choose some and discard others because it is an ongoing thing.”

Spain play Israel in a World Cup qualifier in Gijon on Friday 24 March, and four days later take on France in a friendly in Paris.