England manager Gareth Southgate has issued a warning to Manchester United's Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw after including them in his latest squad.
Maguire and Shaw were among three United players who made the cut in England's 28-man squad for the Nations League double-header against Italy and Germany later this month. The Three Lions travel to the San Siro on Friday, September 23, before they face Germany at Wembley three days later in the final group stage match.
Dean Henderson, who is currently on loan at Nottingham Forest, was also called-up to the squad by Southgate. Marcus Rashford's recent injury has denied him the chance of a recall, while Jadon Sancho misses out on a place despite his encouraging performances so far this season.
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England's squad announcement is usually accompanied by a press conference, where the media get the chance to question the manager over his decisions. Due to the death of the Queen, a statement from Southgate was released in place of the usual press conference.
“We recognise the country is still in a period of mourning and my thoughts remain with the Royal Family,” said Southgate.
“While it is important to explain some of our decisions around selection, we didn’t feel it appropriate to hold a full press conference, when it might divert attention from where people’s minds should be at this time.
“This is a bigger than normal squad and part of the rationale is that we are very close to a World Cup and we feel, although our results were disappointing in the summer, we have picked on the basis of form and capability over a long period."
Both Maguire and Shaw were included in Southgate's squad, despite the pair not featuring in Erik ten Hag's favoured starting line-up for United. The England coach acknowledged this situation, and sent a warning message to the pair ahead of the World Cup in Qatar.
He said: “Clearly, we have a number of players including Ben Chilwell, Luke Shaw, Harry Maguire and Kalvin Phillips who are not playing a lot of minutes with their club. It is not ideal, but we feel they have been, and can be, important players for us. It is not a perfect situation but there is still a lot of football to be played before Qatar."
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