England's excluded trio Ben Chilwell, Jadon Sancho and Tammy Abraham are under pressure from Gareth Southgate's impressive fringe stars following Thursday's win over Wales, the manager has said.
Sancho, Chilwell and Abraham all missed out on England's 3-0 friendly win after breaching Covid guidelines, celebrating the Chelsea striker's birthday before joining up with the squad meant their link up with the rest of the group has been delayed.
Southgate made a number of changes for the Wembley friendly, with Danny Ings and Dominic Calvert-Lewin both scoring on their first starts while Conor Coady got his first goal in just his second game for the Three Lions. At left-wing back, Bukayo Saka looked assured in Chilwell's absence.
"That, in essence, is the really big lesson for anyone in that situation, you want to be involved and playing," Southgate said. "When you've got that place in the squad, you don't want to allow other people the opportunity to take it.
"Whenever we give debuts, or we get guys who deserve their chance time on the pitch, there is an opportunity to push themselves up the pecking order a bit. Several did that tonight.
"There is competition for places, not just the squad we named but there are other players outside that."
Abraham and Sancho have begun training alone once more and are expected to return to the squad against Belgium this weekend, but Chilwell has shown "some illness" despite testing negative for Covid-19. Though the England camp feel he only has minor issues, the full-back is a doubt for Sunday.
"Tammy and Jadon have trained independently, with us but in isolation, this afternoon," Southgate said.
"All three players have tested negatively but Ben has had some illness which we think is minor but as a precaution, we have kept him separate from the group at the moment.
"There is a strong chance he won't be with us for the Uefa testing in the morning, which would rule him out on Sunday, but we would expect Tammy and Jadon to be available for that."
