MARCUS RASHFORD IS a high-profile absentee from England manager Gareth Southgate’s provisional Euro 2024 squad.
The 26-year-old forward has had a rocky season with Manchester United, scoring just eight goals in all competitions.
Southgate has previously warned that Rashford faced a battle for a place in the squad heading to Germany.
Former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, currently at Ajax, was also omitted on this occasion.
Confirming the #ThreeLions' pre-#EURO2024 training squad! 🏴
— England (@England) May 21, 2024
Several players who are injury doubts, feature in Southgate’s training squad. The manager adopted a similar strategy three years ago ahead of the last European Championship, calling up a 33-man squad before it was whittled down to 26 on the eve of the finals.
A group of 32 players were selected, with Manchester United defender Luke Shaw getting the nod despite his ongoing injury issues.
Shaw has not played for Manchester United since February due to a muscle problem and last week Erik ten Hag admitted the left-back was a major doubt to feature in Saturday’s FA Cup final.
Nevertheless, he is likely to be given the chance to prove his fitness by Southgate after a string of excellent displays at previous major tournaments.
Bukayo Saka and Harry Kane are also included despite recent fitness issues.
Jude Bellingham’s involvement with Real Madrid in the Champions League final at Wembley on June 1 means he could miss both of the Euro 2024 warm-up fixtures against Bosnia and Herzegovina (June 3) and Iceland (June 7), but was named in the squad.
Southgate will also sweat on the fitness of his players in the all-Manchester FA Cup final, with nine potential candidates to play in Germany this summer hopeful of being involved at Wembley.
Another unwelcome headache for Southgate is the post-season friendly between Tottenham and Newcastle in Melbourne, which takes place on Wednesday.
Southgate has to submit his final 26-man group to UEFA by June 7.
