Jadon Sancho, Kieran Trippier and Jesse Lingard have been dropped from England’s squad for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Albania and San Marino.
Marcus Rashford and Jude Bellingham have returned having missed out on the October internationals, though Fikayo Tomori misses out and there remains no place for Mason Greenwood.
Rashford was one of several players to be unavailable to manager Gareth Southgate during the last camp due to injury. Harry Maguire, Kalvin Phillips and Reece James and Trent Alexander-Arnold also return.
Sancho and Lingard miss out having struggled for regular playing time at Manchester United under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with Southgate admitting that Sancho was fortunate to be included in the October squad.
Trippier’s omission comes despite the Atletico Madrid full-back captaining Southgate’s side in the 5-0 win over Andorra in the absence of Harry Kane and Jordan Henderson.
Southgate has chosen to overlook several young uncapped players currently impressing in the Premier League like Arsenal’s Emile Smith-Rowe and Crystal Palace’s Conor Gallagher, though acknowledged their bright starts to the season.
“We had quite a few players missing last time, which means you bring others in and then you’ve got more decisions to make. There are also some young players who are playing well,” said Southgate.
“We’ve kept a reasonable amount of consistency really with the group that we were with during the summer. They did so well, we’re only five international games on from that, but there are also players pushing this group very strongly.”
England squad to play Albania and San Marino
Goalkeepers: Sam Johnstone, Jordan Pickford, Aaron Ramsdale.
Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben Chilwell, Conor Coady, Reece James, Harry Maguire, Tyrone Mings, Luke Shaw, John Stones, Kyle Walker.
Midfielders: Jude Bellingham, Jordan Henderson, Mason Mount, Kalvin Phillips, Declan Rice, James Ward-Prowse
Forwards: Tammy Abraham, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka, Raheem Sterling.
