England World Cup 2022 squad announcement – LIVE

Gareth Southgate has confirmed his 26-player England squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The players who have made the cut were revealed at 2pm, after weeks of jostling for position and speculation over who will be boarding the plane to Qatar.

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There had been rumblings over whether James Maddison, Ivan Toney, James Ward-Prowse, Jarrod Bowen and Joe Gomez have been excluded too, with 90min understanding that a late call was still to be made on Brighton’s Danny Welbeck – a surprising candidate to many but a player very much in-form at Brighton & Hove Albion.

2:42PM – KANE’S FATIGUE

Tottenham head coach Antonio Conte revealed last night that Harry Kane has been struggling with tiredness recently.

“I’m sure he is,” Southgate commented.

“We’ve got to refresh the players, excite them when they come in the door. We’ve got some that need to train and some that will benefit from a few days of doing nothing.”

2:40PM – CENTRE-BACK CHOICES

Southgate has called Harry Maguire, John Stones, Eric Dier, Ben White and Conor Coady up, while the likes of Fikayo Tomori and Marc Guehi have not made it.

“We don’t think the young ones have done quite enough to push the older ones out,” he said.

“[Maguire] is one of our best centre-backs.”

2:35PM – WHY JAMES WAS LEFT OUT BUT NOT WALKER

So Kyle Walker is heading to Qatar after groin surgery but the returning Reece James is not, and Southgate was quizzed on this.

“Kyle is not back in full training yet but he will be available for the group stage,” he said.

“We had to make a difficult call with Reece, who is a fantastic player. But he wasn’t going to be available until, if everything went perfectly, the latter stages of the tournament.

“There were too many unknowns on this road to recovery, and I don’t think we could take a player that’s not available for the group stage, I think that would be deemed arrogant in some circles.

“If everything went well and he was available and ready, you’d be bringing him into a quarter-final after eight weeks out. That would be really demanding.

2:30PM – PHILLIPS AND WALKER’S INCLUSION AFTER INJURIES

It has been put to Southgate that he might not be able to start Kalvin Phillips or Walker in the opening game after only just returning from injuries.

“No, that’s not the case,” he insisted. “Kalvin played last night, so I think with him he’s free of injury.

“We’re aware he’s not going to be able to play 90 minutes, that won’t be possible. We’re going to have to build his fitness level. But he’s available, free of injury.

“We have Declan Rice as a defensive midfielder, Hendo can play there but it’s not his number one position, so we don’t have a lot of cover for that role in the country.

“Kalvin is a super player and we feel that’s a risk worth taking because we know generally his fitness is good, and we think he can add to the group.

2:25PM – DECISION TO OMIT ABRAHAM

Southgate has now been asked why he chose Callum Wilson over Tammy Abraham.

“Tammy’s had a poor run of scoring form at the wrong time,” he replied.

“It’s not a case where we’re three or four weeks away from a finals and the start of the first match, we’re now ten days [away].

“Form could be important. We don’t know really any of the players we’re watching their club form, but we don’t really know until we see them face-to-face and on the training pitch.

2:21PM – WHY MADDISON IS IN

Southgate reveals why he’s picked James Maddison in his squad despite overlooking him in the past.

“He’s playing really well,” he said. “Look, we’ve always said he’s a good player, he’s earned the right.

“We think he can give us something slightly different to the other attacking players that we’ve got. I think at various stages there have been different conversations and debates about James, there were moments where ahead of the Euros I don’t think he was in contention, he had a problem with his hip, and then September was probably a fair debate [over his exclusion].

“But I think he’s playing as well as any of the attacking players in this country. He’s different to the others, we have different types of threat, I think we could need that.”

2:15PM – SOUTHGATE TO EXPLAIN DECISIONS

Southgate will now face the media to explain his reasoning behind the 26-strong cohort he has named.

2PM – SQUAD NAMED

The list is in – here’s Southgate’s 26-player squad for the World Cup…

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Newcastle), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal)

Defenders: Kyle Walker (Manchester City), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle), Ben White (Arsenal), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Eric Dier (Tottenham), Conor Coady (Everton), Luke Shaw (Manchester United)

Midfielders: Declan Rice (West Ham), Kalvin Phillips (Manchester City), Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Mason Mount (Chelsea), James Maddison (Leicester), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea)

Forwards: Harry Kane (Tottenham), Callum Wilson (Newcastle), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Raheem Sterling (Chelsea), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Jack Grealish (Manchester City)

You can watch the official announcement of Southgate’s World Cup squad live on Sky Sports.

Contrary to previous lists of 23 players, Southgate will be able to name a 26-man squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar due to the unprecedented mid-season format of the tournament.

Even with such little time to go until the beginning of the Three Lions’ World Cup campaign, there is still uncertainty over what 26 players will actually be on the plane.

Whoever is included in Southgate’s 26-man list, England commence their 2022 World Cup campaign on 21 November as they take on Iran in Group B – one day after Qatar face Ecuador in the tournament’s official curtain-raiser.

Source of the article

Author: XenBet