Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White has been told he could be one of the “next ones in” after being omitted from Gareth Southgate’s latest England squad.
The 23-year-old has, however, been selected for Lee Carsley’s Under-21s instead, and will take part in a training camp at St. George’s Park in June, ahead of this summer’s UEFA U21 EURO Finals in Romania and Georgia.
Gibbs-White has been the standout player for Forest in their successful fight against relegation this season, after joining from Wolves in the summer. The midfielder has scored three times and provided two assists in Forest’s last six Premier League games.
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Southgate was said to be keeping an eye on the Reds’ record signing ahead of announcing his 25-man squad for next month’s European qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia. But Gibbs-White has not been selected for the squad, with the likes of Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze and Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher preferred.
Explaining why he and others close to bridging the gap to the seniors missed out, Southgate said: “Well I don’t think they’re quite ready to be ahead of the players picked but there’s a good chance that if we had problems that they would be the next ones in.
“Myself and Steve Holland will go to at least a part of that tournament to watch them. I think that’s important. We have got some good players in there who we like and I think it’s important that they recognise that they can see from the decisions we have made that there’s a pathway here for young players; we’ve always done that. We’re excited about some of those players as well.”
Carsley and his staff will work with the group across three days between June 7-10 as they prepare for the tournament, which takes place between June 21 and July 8. There, they will face opposition from Czech Republic, Israel and Germany in their group stage games.
Carsley will name his squad for the finals on Wednesday, June 14.
U-21s training squad:
Goalkeepers: Josh Griffiths (West Bromwich Albion), Carl Rushworth (Brighton and Hove Albion), James Trafford (Manchester City), Anthony Patterson (Sunderland)
Defenders: Max Aarons (Norwich City), Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton), Levi Colwill (Brighton & Hove Albion, loan from Chelsea), Charlie Cresswell (Leeds United), Lewis Hall (Chelsea), Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Manchester City), Djed Spence (Tottenham Hotspur), Luke Thomas (Leicester City)
Midfielders: Tommy Doyle (Manchester City), Harvey Elliott (Liverpool), James Garner (Everton), Curtis Jones (Liverpool), James McAtee (Manchester City), Jacob Ramsey (Aston Villa), Oliver Skipp (Tottenham Hotspur)
Forwards: Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest), Emile Smith Rowe (Arsenal), Noni Madueke (Chelsea), Cameron Archer (Aston Villa), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle United).
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