Mainoo aims high after ‘whirlwind’

KOBBIE MAINOO is yet to make his England debut, but the teenager has his sights on a place at Euro 2024. The Manchester United midfielder was ready to join up with the Under 21s when he travelled to St George’s Park earlier this week, only to win promotion to Gareth Southgate’s senior squad. Mainoo, 18, has been reflecting on his ‘whirlwind’ 48 hours, but he is also looking ahead to June, when England will kick off as favourites at the European Championship in Germany. ‘That’s the end goal for the season, to get into that squad. It would be an honour to be able to make the plane,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of time between now and then. If I go back to my club and perform well and do what I need to do, then hopefully it’ll all align. ‘But it’s been a pretty mad couple of days. Sunday (United’s 4-3 FA Cup win against Liverpool) was obviously a great game, and then to get called up to the Under 21s, obviously I was excited to come. ‘Getting down here and realising that I was with the first team was amazing. I was shocked and happy, it’s been a whirlwind of emotions.’ Did he ever believe his first senior call-up was coming? ‘The games have been coming so fast at United that I’ve not really had time to think about it,’ he said. ‘Obviously I knew the international break was coming up, so thought about it a bit, but still, we had so many big games that I couldn’t really take my eye off the ball. But now I’m here, I’m taking it all in, it’s been amazing.’

Mainoo’s chances of a debut against Brazil at Wembley on Saturday have perhaps increased after midfielder Jordan Henderson was one of four players to miss training yesterday. Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane, Chelsea’s Cole Palmer and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka also worked alone in the gym.