18.03.2016 13:24 h

35-year-old Aduriz gets Spain call, Costa dropped

Veteran Athletic Bilbao striker Aritz Aduriz has been rewarded for his stunning form at the age of 35 with his first call-up to the Spain squad for six years as Chelsea's Diego Costa was dropped on Friday.

Coach Vicente del Bosque named a 25-man squad for Spain's final two friendlies away to Italy on March 24 and Romania four days later before he names his final squad for Euro 2016.

Aduriz's 31st goal of the season booked Athletic's place in the quarter-finals of the Europa League on Thursday at the expense of Gary Neville's Valencia.

"I have to say he is in because there has been widespread calls for him to be included, but also because he deserves it," Del Bosque said of Aduriz.

"He is playing well, scoring lots of goals and he is a centre-forward that we all like."

Costa has finally paid for his poor form at international level, where he has scored just once in 10 games for Spain since switching his allegiances to the European champions from Brazil before the 2014 World Cup.

His controversial clash with Everton's Gareth Barry last weekend for which the striker was charged for improper conduct by the English FA after being sent-off was also met with widespread condemnation in Spain.

However, Del Bosque highlighted an injury Costa suffered as Chelsea bowed out of the Champions League last week as the principal reason for him not being included.

"It is principally for health reasons. In the game on the ninth he went off with a quadriceps injury, he pushed himself to play four days later and ended up a bit sore.

"Diego has been playing well the past two months and we are counting on him. There are still two months to take a decision (for the Euros).

"Then there is the disciplinary aspect and it's clear we want everyone to behave well, but the situation he had with Barry wasn't very serious."

Barcelona's Sergi Roberto was handed his first call-up to the senior Spanish side, but club teammate Andres Iniesta was left out to due to a minor muscle problem.

Real Madrid's Nacho and Barcelona's Marc Bartra retain their places as back-up to club teammates Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique in central defence despite a lack of playing time at club level.

Madrid's Dani Carvajal misses out to Villarreal's Mario Gaspar as Juanfran's understudy at right-back.

And Pedro Rodriguez, Paco Alcacer, Nolito and Alvaro Morata are all included alongside Aduriz amongst the strikers despite their lack of goalscoring form at club level.