Gareth Southgate has revealed that Jesse Lingard will start England's first warm-up game for Euro 2020 despite not being named in the 26-man squad.
The midfielder, who shone on loan at West Ham from Manchester United in the second half of the season, was one of six players to be cut from the Three Lions squad on Tuesday, with Mason Greenwood pulling out due to injury.
Despite that, Lingard is set to start when England face Austria at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium on Wednesday.
With 11 of Southgate's players having not yet reported for duty after being involved in either the Europa League or Champions League finals last week, the England boss has limited options for the warm-up games.
Lingard, along with the other five who were cut on Tuesday, remains on the standby list should injuries arise within the squad before the first game.
Southgate singled out the decisions to leave out Lingard, James Ward-Prowse and Ollie Watkins as particularly difficult and said they will be involved across the warm-up games against Austria and Romania this week.
Southgate said: "For me personally, it was very difficult to speak with Jesse, who has given so much for England performed so well for England over a long period of time.
"Those three I gave the option of going home, but they were all adamant they wanted to stay.
“They wanted to part of the group. They know they'll be involved in these two matches.
“They’ll be involved in the games. In fact, I think Jesse will probably start tomorrow.”
