Lee Carsley has been rocked by an extraordinary eight withdrawals from his England squad to face Greece and Republic of Ireland in the Nations League, Phil Foden an unexpected name on the absentees list where he joins his Manchester City teammate Jack Grealish.
Carsley, in interim charge for the final time before he hands over to Thomas Tuchel in the new year, has reacted by giving a first call-up to Morgan Rogers, reward for the attacking midfielder’s dynamic form at Aston Villa this season. Also called in are Jarrad Branthwaite and Jarrod Bowen plus the uncapped Tino Livramento and James Trafford.
England squad to face Greece (14 Nov) and Republic of Ireland (17 Nov):
Goalkeepers Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), James Trafford (Burnley).
Defenders Marc Guéhi (Palace), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Rico Lewis (Man City), Kyle Walker (Man City), Lewis Hall (Newcastle), Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Southampton), Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton), Tino Livramento (Newcastle).
Midfielders Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Conor Gallagher (Atlético), Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest), Angel Gomes (Lille), Curtis Jones (Liverpool), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa).
Forwards: Jarrod Bowen (West Ham), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Noni Madueke (Chelsea), Dominic Solanke (Tottenham), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa).
The bigger stir has been caused by those to drop out. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka were certain to do so after going off with injuries during the weekend’s Premier League fixtures. The former hurt his hamstring in Liverpool’s win over Villa. The latter pair did not last the 90 minutes for Arsenal in the 1-1 draw at Chelsea. Rice had played with a broken toe. Saka departed after being caught by a late tackle from Marc Cucurella.
Cole Palmer was a doubt after he played through a knee problem for Chelsea and he has pulled out while his teammate Levi Colwill has also withdrawn. The final player to pull out is the Southampton goalkeeper, Aaron Ramsdale, who had only just won a recall to the squad.
Foden played the 90 minutes for City in their defeat at Brighton but he has a problem while Pep Guardiola had expressed his surprise that Grealish was named in the squad last Thursday, having missed City’s previous five games with a groin issue. He was not available again at Brighton.
Another City player, John Stones, was not selected due to injury while Manuel Akanji, Matheus Nunes and Jérémy Doku have withdrawn from the Switzerland, Portugal and Belgium squads respectively. Carsley can still call upon City’s Kyle Walker and Rico Lewis. He was unable to include the Manchester United players Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Kobbie Mainoo, who are injured.
England face Greece in Athens on Thursday in a game they must win to maintain hope of automatic promotion back to the Nations League A divisions. They play Ireland at Wembley on Sunday. If England finish second in the group, they will face a two-legged promotion play-off in March against a third-placed team from the ‘A’ section. The nations that currently occupy those positions are Poland, Belgium, Hungary and Serbia.
