England manager Gareth Southgate has explained why he has left Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli out of his latest squad.
Alli missed out on the previous England squad as he had only just returned from a hamstring injury. He has been in and out of Spurs' first team squads since, as Mauricio Pochettino carefully brings him back after his injury woes, but he did start the Champions League match against Bayern Munich on Tuesday night.
Southgate decided against calling him up on Thursday to his squad to face the Czech Republic and Bulgaria in away Euro Qualifiers this month.
Harry Kane, Danny Rose and Harry Winks have all been called up, while Eric Dier once again misses out due to his lack of game time at Tottenham.
While asked about leaving out Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Southgate referred to Alli as well in his answer at the press conference on Thursday.
"It's little bit like Dele really where their seasons haven't really got going for either of them," he said.
"We're expecting them to challenge in the coming months, but to put them in means I've got to leave someone out who is in form and playing well.
"So a Mason Mount or a James Maddison, one of those, they're in competition with those guys in the squad. So whenever you ask me about who I'm leaving out of the squad, it's about who I leave out to let them back in.
"It's a difficult call in those positions in particular and I believe those players will recognise the rationale for the decisions."
Here's the full England squad: Tammy Abraham (Chelsea), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Ross Barkley (Chelsea), Ben Chilwell (Leicester City), Fabian Delph (Everton), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Tom Heaton (Aston Villa), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Michael Keane (Everton), James Maddison (Leicester City), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Burnley), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Declan Rice (West Ham United), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Fikayo Tomori (Chelsea), Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid), Callum Wilson (AFC Bournemouth), Harry Winks (Tottenham Hotspur).
