After confirming his England squad to face Italy and Germany in the Nations League later this month, fans learned that Gareth Southgate has left out Manchester United duo Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho.
Rashford is understood to be recovering from injury with the winger confirming the bad timing of his latest setback on his official social media earlier in the week.
Good luck to the boys later today @ManUtd ????
In regards to @England every player wants to represent there country and I’m no different! Unfortunately I’m not ready yet as I’ve picked up an untimely injury. ???????
— Marcus Rashford MBE (@MarcusRashford) September 15, 2022
However, with Southgate also excluding Sancho from his senior Three Lions squad, some fans and pundits have been quick to question the 52-year-old’s decision.
One person who feels United’s number 25 can feel hard done by is former Red Devils’ defender and pundit Rio Ferdinand.
“There’s a lot of defenders,” Ferdinand recently told BT Sport (as quoted by Sport Bible) when discussing Southgate’s squad selection.
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“I think the only real surprise in there is probably the amount of players that he’s got that aren’t playing regular football at their clubs.
“Given the kind of stance that Gareth had when he got the job in terms of players playing minutes and picking players on form.
“Jadon Sancho will be one player who will probably look at that squad and think I’ve done what’s expected of me as a winger in terms of output, numbers-wise this season and I’m doing better in terms of numbers than other players, and I’m still not getting a look in.
“He could probably feel disgruntled. But I think that squad is a lot of what we would expect.”
It is hard to disagree with Ferdinand’s assessment. Sancho has definitely improved on last season’s form so far this season, scoring three goals in his first eight appearances, in all competitions.
However, with the former Borussia Dortmund winger still someway off the levels he was competing at prior to his blockbuster £76.5m move to Old Trafford just over 12 months ago, it is perhaps no surprise that Southgate has once again opted to overlook the 22-year-old.
Nevertheless, with two months left before this winter’s World Cup kicks off, Sancho, along with Rashford, still have time to convince Southgate they’re worthy of a place on England’s plane to Qatar.