After confirming his England squad to face Italy and Germany in the Nations League later this month, fans have learned that Gareth Southgate has left out Manchester United duo Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho.
Rashford is understood to be recovering from injury and the winger confirmed the bad timing of his latest setback on his official social media earlier in the week.
Good luck guys later today @ManUtd ????
When it comes to @England, every player wants to represent their country and I’m no different! Unfortunately, I’m not ready yet, as I was injured prematurely. ???????
— Marcus Rashford MBE (@MarcusRashford) September 15, 2022
However, with Southgate also dropping Sancho from his Three Lions senior squad, some fans and pundits were quick to question the 52-year-old’s decision.
One person who feels United’s number 25 may feel bad is former Red Devils defender and pundit Rio Ferdinand.
“There are a lot of defenders,” Ferdinand recently told BT Sport (quoted by Sport Bible) when discussing Southgate’s team selection.
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“I think the only real surprise there is probably the number of players he has who don’t play regular football for their clubs.
“Given the kind of stance Gareth was in when he got the job in terms of players playing minutes and picking fit players.
“Jadon Sancho will be a player who will probably look at that team and think that I have done what was expected of me as a winger in terms of production, in terms of numbers this season and I am doing better in terms of numbers than other players. , and I’m still not watching.
“He could probably feel unhappy. But I think that team is a lot of what we would expect.”
It’s hard not to agree with Ferdinand’s assessment. Sancho has definitely improved on last season’s form so far this season, scoring three goals in his first eight appearances, in all competitions.
However, with the former Borussia Dortmund winger still far from the levels he was competing at before his £76.5m move to Old Trafford just over 12 months ago, it is perhaps no surprise that Southgate have opted. once again for overlooking the 22- age.
However, with two months to go before this winter’s World Cup kicks off, Sancho, along with Rashford, still have time to convince Southgate that they are worthy of a place on the plane from England to Qatar.
