England have named a squad of four players for the World Championships in Dusseldorf in May.

Paul Drinkhall, Liam Pitchford, Sam Walker and David McBeath will travel to Germany for the event, which begins on May 29.

After the team events last year, in which England won bronze, the competition this year features individual events, and the four English players will appear in singles and doubles.

At the last Worlds in Suzhou in 2015, Pitchford reached the last 32 – the best performance by an English player since 1999 – and Drinkhall the last 64. As a pair, they were beaten in the last 64 of the doubles.

With England’s top two women, Kelly Sibley and Tin-Tin Ho, unavailable for selection, the decision has been taken not to send any women to Germany on this occasion.