Gareth Southgate has revealed that he knew on Friday about Mason Greenwood's withdrawal from the England squad.
The Manchester United star was named in the provisional 33-man group, which was then whittled down to 26, but made himself unavailable.
Greenwood has dealt with an injury that meant he missed England's U21 Euro campaign earlier this season.
Southgate held talks with the United boss regarding the teenager's future and was made aware that he "wasn't an option".
He said: "Mason Greenwood unfortunately had to pull out on Friday, so we knew he wasn't a contender over the last few days"
"I spoke to Ole & Mason last Friday. It's unfortunate for Mason to miss out on any tournament, even though he's young. These opportunities don't come around very often.
"We know what an exciting player he can be but it wasn't an option for us"
United themselves put out a statement saying: "A further spell of tournament football would not be beneficial and Mason will remain at Manchester United to recuperate and prepare for pre-season training."
Southgate still selected four Red Devils' stars despite Greenwood's withdrawal.
Dean Henderson, Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford and Harry Maguire were all included.
The latter though has been battling injury for weeks having hobbled off in United's win over Aston Villa in May.
He missed the Europa League final and now faces a race against time to be fit for England's opening game on June 13.
Maguire is crucial to the Three Lions defence but Southgate acknowledged that he, and Jordan Henderson, were someway off.
He said: “We know exactly where he’s at as our medical team have been over with him in Manchester. He hasn’t been able to join us yet because of quarantine issues after his return from Poland.
"He’s got a bit to do, like Hendo [Jordan Henderson] they’ve both got a bit to do to be ready but the fact they’re such fantastic characters to have around the group.
"Given we were able to pick 26, we felt that the opportunity to have those two with us was a straightforward one.”
Southgate was then quizzed on Jesse Lingard's omission and said: “Jesse did really well to get himself back in the race because back in January he was a millions miles away from being considered for an England squad.
"I said in March that he’d had a fabulous few weeks but he was slightly fortunate because we were without three or four wide players at that time.
“He was excellent for West Ham and he plays so well for us - we have total trust in the way he plays. He’s reliable, he’s a great member of the group. He will play tomorrow because we’ve got Sancho ill, we’ve obviously got a lot of players not available and he’ll start to help the balance of the team.
"He deserves that opportunity to go and show me that I’m wrong straight away. [Laughs]. The lads that are with us are the standby list and we need to keep them match ready.”
