Mason Greenwood is the surprise omission from the England squad that Gareth Southgate has named to face the Republic of Ireland in a friendly and Belgium and Iceland in the Nations League.
West Ham’s Declan Rice is also set to be involved in the first match between the sides since he pledged his international career to England in 2019 despite winning three caps for Ireland.
With Danny Ings unavailable because of a knee injury, Southgate was expected to recall Greenwood, whom he was forced to send home from the September fixture in Iceland. Greenwood and another England debutant, Phil Foden, had broken Covid-19 regulations by inviting two women into the team hotel.
Southgate excluded them from the October get-together. But while Foden is now back, having started the season well for Manchester City, Greenwood remains out. The Manchester United striker has scored two goals in eight appearances for his club.
Southgate has still not been able to find room in an enlarged 29-man squad for Ross Barkley or James Maddison and he has not called up Harvey Barnes, having done so the last time. Kalvin Phillips misses out because of a shoulder injury.
England’s manager reiterated his support for Jordan Pickford in light of the Everton goalkeeper being dropped for his club’s 2-1 defeat at Newcastle last Sunday, making the point that he had never let his country down. Southgate’s other goalkeepers are Nick Pope and Dean Henderson but he said: “There is nobody that is challenging seriously to put him [Pickford] out of that position.”
Southgate, discussing Greenwood and Foden, said: “They don’t come as a pair, they are individual players with their own strengths and individual talents. We are looking at the balance of the squad positionally firstly.
“Phil has had a lot of football with his club most recently and Mason has had less game time with United.
“I have had a good chat with Ole [Gunnar Solskjær, Manchester United’s manager] about his development and I feel it is better for him to stay at the club at the moment, to develop over the next few months.
“But they are both available, there was no carryover from September, that is done. Both are available for selection and are going to be very good players.”
Chelsea’s Reece James has retained his place despite being sent off against Denmark for dissent and having to serve a suspension that rules him out of both of the Nations League ties. Southgate indicated he would select him against Ireland.
“Reece’s game is at a very high level,” he said. “We were very impressed with the way he trained every day, with the way he took his opportunity as a sub and then with his performance against Denmark – I thought he was arguably our best player.”
England squad for Ireland friendly and Nations League
Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Dean Henderson (Manchester United), Nick Pope (Burnley)
Defenders: Kyle Walker (Manchester City), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Ben Chilwell (Chelsea), Conor Coady (Wolves), Eric Dier (Tottenham), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Reece James (Chelsea) Michael Keane (Everton), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal), Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid)
Midfielders: Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Jack Grealish (Aston Villa), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Declan Rice (West Ham), James Ward-Prowse (Southampton), Harry Winks (Tottenham)
Forwards: Harry Kane (Tottenham), Tammy Abraham (Chelsea), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) – Guardian
