Gareth Southgate has performed a surprising U-turn by making the eleventh-hour decision not to select Luke Shaw in the England Under-21 squad for next month's European Championship, accepting Manchester United's wish that the left-back should be rested this summer.
Middlesbrough-loanee Patrick Bamford, who has been linked with declaring for Ireland as his mother is Irish, has also been included in the squad.
His inclusion would not rule him out of playing for Ireland in the future, indeed he has already been capped at Under-21 level for England despite a youth appearance for Ireland.
Southgate, who did choose Harry Kane against Tottenham Hotspur's wishes, had also been minded to select Shaw until late on Monday.
But the coach stated that, after discussions with Louis van Gaal, it was made clear that Shaw, who is currently recovering from concussion, should not be selected.
“I’ve spoken with Louis and Luke’s situation was monitored,” said Southgate. “Luke was always very keen to come and Louis was supportive, but medically he was not fit to come. I knew that last Friday. It’s a shame, but we were always going to lose somebody.”
Shaw should recover from his concussion in time for Euro 2015, which starts on June 17th, and the warm-up match seven days earlier against Belarus – so Southgate’s decision not to pick him on that basis was unexpected.
Southgate suggested that his selection of Kane was not received well by Tottenham after Maurico Pochettino also complained about the striker’s potential selection.
“Tottenham are one of our best clubs in terms of all of the age groups we work with,” Southgate said. “I have a really good relationship with Mauricio Pochettio. Most clubs would prefer their players not to go away all summer and play, but we want to take the best players and give them this experience.
“It’s important that everyone has their say, but Mauricio has had a huge impact on the landscape for young England players here. He’s been very brave in his decision and several of our players have benfitted from that.
“It’s important how we manage his load in training. We’ll give him some additional time off when he comes back and report for duty a little bit later.”
England qualified for the tournament with an exemplary record. They dropped two points – and conceded just two goals – in their qualifying group before beating Croatia 4-2 on aggregate in a play-off last October. They play their first match in the tournament against Portugal on June 18th before taking on Sweden and Italy.
England squad
Goalkeepers: Marcus Bettinelli (Fulham); Jonathan Bond (Watford); Jack Butland (Stoke City)
Defenders: Calum Chambers (Arsenal); Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur); Luke Garbutt (Everton); Ben Gibson (Middlesbrough); Carl Jenkinson (Arsenal); Michael Keane (Burnley); Liam Moore (Leicester City); John Stones (Everton); Matt Targett (Southampton)
Midfielders: Tom Carroll (Tottenham Hotspur); Nathaniel Chalobah (Chelsea); Will Hughes (Derby County); Jake Forster-Caskey (Brighton & Hove Albion); Jesse Lingard (Manchester United); Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea); Alex Pritchard (Tottenham Hotspur); Nathan Redmond (Norwich City); James Ward-Prowse (Southampton)
Forwards: Benik Afobe (Wolverhampton Wanderers); Patrick Bamford (Chelsea); Saido Berahino (West Bromwich Albion); Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur); Danny Ings (Burnley); Cauley Woodrow (Fulham)
