Foden sorry for his ‘error in judgment’

the breach and quickly moved to ensure neither had contact with the rest of the squad.

■ Manager Gareth Southgate branded the duo ‘naive’ as the FA promised a full investigation.

■ Both Manchester City and Manchester United publicly condemned their players’ conduct.

■ The FA will review their security measures after the incident.

Southgate took the swift decision to remove City star Foden, 20, and United forward Greenwood, 18, from his squad ahead of breakfast yesterday after a member of staff was alerted to images on social media appearing to confirm two girls had been in a hotel room with them.

Football teams are allowed to travel relatively freely between countries without having to quarantine as part of the ‘elite sports’ protocols which were introintroduced by the UK Government ernto earlier this year to help pave the way for r competitive sport to return. But Greenwood and Foden’s move to invite the girls into the hotel has breached those rules.

UEFA were immediately y informed but England’s ’s clash in Denmark is still expected to go ahead tonight. night

The duo were immediately told they would not take part in the final training session before tonight’s game, neither would they be travelling with the team to Denmark.

Instead, they were instructed to stay in Iceland with a view to returning home to Manchester on the same private jet yesterday.

‘While they did not leave the team hotel, it was an unacceptable breach of our protocol,’ said the FA in a statement. ‘They have apologised for their serious lack of judgment.

‘The FA will be launching a full investigation into the circumstances leading up to this breach.’

Icelandic police fined the duo £1,300 for the Covid-19 rule breach, which will be paid by the players and not by the FA or their clubs.

Videos seen by Sportsmail show Greenwood and Foden appearing to arrange the secret meeting with a woman, said to be 20-year-old model Nadia Sif Lindal Gunnarsdottir and her 19-year-old cousin Lara Clausen, on social media.

It is claimed a separate room — on a different floor from where the squad were staying in the hotel — was organised for the meeting.

Southgate insisted yesterday the girls did not enter the players’ and staff’s biosecure bubble.

He did not say whether or not the pair would be punished for their behaviour, insisting he would let the FA complete their investigation before making a decision.

But Southgate is likely to have taken a very dim view on their antics and it remains to be seen if the incident will impact on their future selection in his squad. ‘Obviously they have been naive,’ he said. ‘ We’ve dealt with it approappropriately. ‘I recognise their age but thi n the whole world is dealing with this pandemic and there’s responsibility on every age group tto make sure that they pplay their part in keeping ikeeping each other safe and nnot spreading the virvirus.’ TalTalking about their midfielder fieldermidfielder Foden, Manchester City’s statement read: ‘It is clear that Phil’s actions were totally inappropriate.’

Last night, Foden said: ‘I want to make a full apology. I apologise to Gareth Southgate, to my England team-mates, to the staff, supporters and also to my club and my family.

‘On this occasion I made a poor decision and my behaviour didn’t meet the standards expected of me. I will learn a valuable lesson from this error in judgment.’

On Greenwood, a United spokesman said: ‘ Manchester United are liaising with the FA and are disappointed with the actions of Mason over this situation.’