Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish has hit back at criticism from Manchester United legend Roy Keane, insisting he wanted to take a penalty for England.
The Three Lions suffered defeat in the Euro 2020 final to Italy, with Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka all failing to score from the spot.
Criticisms were then directed to other members of the squad, with Keane, a pundit on ITV's coverage, among those questioning why others didn't step-up.
Grealish was one of the players name-checked by the former United captain and the England ace has now broken his silence on the matter.
"I said I wanted to take one!!!! The gaffer has made so many right decisions through this tournament and he did tonight! But I won’t have people say that I didn’t want to take a peno when I said I will…," Grealish wrote on Twitter.
Images circulating on social media appear to show Gareth Southgate selecting his takers for the shootout which, if correct, would have seen goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and Leeds United's Kalvin Phillips as sixth and seventh.
That would have meant that Grealish, Villa's penalty taker, would have been the eighth taker, at the earliest.
Rashford and Sancho were both introduced to the game off the bench for the sole purpose of taking a penalty, with the former even playing the final minutes of the tie at right-back.
However, the United ace struck the post after sending Gianluigi Donnarumma the wrong way, while Sancho and Saka both saw the 22-year-old stopper save their efforts.
The England squad will now disband for their holidays, before rejoining their clubs ahead of the start of the new season.
