Gareth Southgate is yet to decide if Jack Grealish will make his final 26-man England squad for Euro 2024, pointing to the fierce competition for places out wide.
Grealish made 10 appearances in total at Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup, but nine of those came off the bench as he played the role of impact player.
All 35 of his England caps have come under Southgate, but a stop-start campaign with Manchester City has seen his place called into question ahead of the Euros.
Injuries and poor form limited Grealish to just 20 appearances across all competitions in 2023-24, after he provided five goals and seven assists as City won the treble in 2022-23.
Ahead of this week s warm-up friendlies against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland, Southgate said Grealish s attitude has never been in doubt.
He has been really bright and he loves being here. He s had a good energy about his training, Southgate said.
This season he has not played as much. I m sure he would have liked that to be different but we know the qualities he can bring.
He is a player we enjoy working with and a character we enjoy having within the group.
Matchday in Newcastle!
Bosnia Herzegovina
7.45pm
— England (@England)
However, with Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon, Jarrod Bowen, James Maddison and Eberechi Eze all capable of playing in the wide areas, some have questioned if Grealish will be retained when Southgate cuts his 33-man squad to 26.
Asked if Grealish was at risk, Southgate said: I don t think we re defining that just yet. I think we know where we re likely to be.
It s hard to be quite so specific because we keep sitting down and saying: Okay, if it s this or this . Then somebody else in the room says: What about if we lose that player there, or that one doesn t come through with his injury? Do we need another one in this area?
Time is our friend this week. It s worth using the time.
There are a lot of good players in that area of the pitch and they are all competing. We think we know who the best have been across the season.
What we don t totally know is how many we need to take or how many we can allow ourselves to take because of the cover we might need in other positions.
A sunny session ahead of taking on
