A spate of injuries has forced England coach Gareth Southgate to include several players who “do not deserve to be there,” given their lack of playing time, for the World Cup qualifiers againstSlovenia and Lithuania.
Fabian Delph has played 20 minutes in the EPL for Manchester City, while Jesse Lingard has yet to play for Manchester United.
“It’s frustrating,” said Southgate, “because the biggest story here is we’ve got about 12 players missing with injury. It’s incredible. If you were to say, ‘Am I entirely happy with the squadI’ve named?’ then no, because we’ve got too many good players missing with injury.
“The consequence of that is you could well argue there are one or two in the squad who haven’tnecessarily warranted it on their performances. I want competition for places and this time maybe we’ve not be able to achieve that because of the number of injuries.”
GOALKEEPERS:: Joe Hart (West Ham), Fraser Forster (Southampton), Jack Butland (Stoke City), Jordan Pickford(Everton)
DEFENDERS: Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Aaron Cresswell (West Ham), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Phil Jones (Man. United), Harry Maguire (Leicester), John Stones (Man. City), MichaelKeane (Everton), Chris Smalling (Man. United), Kyle Walker (Man. City), Kieran Trippier (Tottenham)
MIDFIELDERS: Eric Dier (Tottenham), Fabian Delph (Man.City), Jake Livermore (WestBrom), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Liverpool), Jesse Lingard (Man. United), Dele Alli (Tottenham)
FORWARDS: Marcus Rashford(Man. United), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Jermain Defoe (Bournemouth), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool).