Trippier axed for Nations League finals
Kieran Trippier has paid the price for an indifferent season at Tottenham Hotspur by being dropped from England’s 23-man squad for the Uefa Nations League Finals.
Despite reaching the Champions League final with Tottenham, the 28-year-old right-back has been left out of the final squad submitted to Uefa from the original selection of 27 players made by manager Gareth Southgate.
Trippier’s Tottenham team-mate Harry Winks, who is recovering from a groin operation, has also been omitted. Southampton pair James Ward-prowse and Nathan Redmond will miss out, but will continue to train with the squad in case there are any withdrawals.
With Trent Alexander-arnold and Kyle Walker included there is no place for Trippier, whose future at Spurs is also in doubt, and who has struggled for form this season.
“Kieran Trippier has had such a big impact, he had such a brilliant World Cup,” Southgate. “He has been a valuable member of our squad and has a great attitude with us, passion in playing for England but Trent [Alexander-arnold] and Kyle [Walker] have finished the season so strongly. So it is a position where we have got competition for places. That is as hard a decision as we have had to make.”
Of Winks, who is hoping to be fit for the Champions League final on Saturday, Southgate said: “He is a player we like and that’s a tough one because he has not played for a couple of months and we don’t get to see him in training. He might be involved at the weekend, but we wouldn’t see him until two days before the game. So when we had other midfielders who are either with us or who are playing regularly, that was the only thinking behind that decision. Harry could still come into that mix.”
Nevertheless, Southgate has included Winks’ Spurs team-mate Harry Kane, whom he admitted will be treated as a special case as he, too, recovers from injury.
The 13 players who reported for international duty last Tuesday will reconvene at St George’s Park on Monday when they will be joined by Manchester City treble-winners – apart from Fabian Delph, who reported early to try to secure his place in the squad, which he has done – and, with the Bundesliga season having finished, Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho.
Those involved in the Champions League and Europa League finals, now down to eight players, will report on June 3 – just three days before England face Holland. England will fly to Portugal on June 5 and stay in Guimaraes, where they will play the Dutch. They will then play either Portugal or Switzerland in either the final or a thirdplace play-off on Sunday, June 9.
England Under-21 manager Aidy Boothroyd, meanwhile, has named a squad featuring 11 World Cup winners for next month’s Euro 2019.
Manchester City’s Phil Foden and Wolves midfielder Morgan Gibbs-white won the Under-17 World Cup in 2017, while there are nine Under-20 world champions, including Dominic Solanke, Kieran Dowell and Jonjoe Kenny.
England Nations League finals squad Pickford (Everton), Walker (Manchester City), Rose (Tottenham), Dier (Tottenham), Stones (Manchester City), Maguire (Leicester City), Lingard (Manchester United), Henderson (Liverpool), Kane (Tottenham), Sterling (Manchester City), Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Gomez (Liverpool), Butland (Stoke City), Chilwell (Leicester City), Keane (Everton), Rice (West Ham), Delph (Manchester City), Barkley (Chelsea), Rashford (Manchester United), Alli (Tottenham), Wilson (Bournemouth), Alexander-arnold (Liverpool), Heaton (Burnley).
England Under-21s squad for Euro 2019 Gunn (Southampton), Henderson (Manchester United), Woodman (Newcastle); Clarke-salter (Chelsea), Dasilva (Chelsea), Kelly (Bournemouth), Kenny (Everton), Konsa (Brentford), Tomori (Derby Cou on loan from Chelsea), Wan-bissaka (Crystal Palace); Barnes (Leicester), Choudhury (Leicester), Dowell (Everton), Foden (Manchester City), Gibbs-white (Wolves), Maddison (Leicester), Mount (Derby on loan from Chelsea), Sessegnon (Fulham); Abraham (Aston Villa, on loan from Chelsea), Calvert-lewin (Everton), Gray (Leicester), Nelson (Arsenal), Solanke (Bournemouth).