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Chelsea duo likely to miss out on World Cup: National boss

With the final preparations for the much-anticipated World Cup in full flow, England manager Gareth Southgate is in the works to build a squad for the event at Russia with the exclusion of the Chelsea midfield duo of Ross Barkley and Danny Drinkwater.

The Three Lions are scheduled to face The Netherlands and Italy over the next weekend and Southgate managed to spring up a few surprises in the Squad for the friendlies with the inclusions of Lewis Cook and Jake Livermore, while Danny Drinkwater and Ross Barkley failed to make the cut.

The duo have struggled with injuries ever since their arrival at Stamford Bridge. Also, the midfielders have failed to create an impact with the limited chances they have obtained so far. The trend would see the players miss their spot to represent England at the World Cup, in a few months time.

England want to experiment with new options

Southgate was recently asked about the squad selected for the friendlies and the reason behind the exclusion of the former Leicester and Everton midfielders. He replied:

“Danny’s not been in Chelsea’s team and we felt with the players we’ve discussed already – the likes of [Lewis] Cook and [Jack] Wilshere on top of those we’ve had in those deeper positions – there were other players we wanted to see. Simple as that.”

The manager admitted that injury was the primary reason behind the exclusion of Ross Barkley, with the midfielder yet to fully recover from the long-term injury. Southgate added that he is optimistic about the star’s place in the squad after getting fully recovered. He said:

“I think Ross has just not been fit. He went on the back of a long-term injury, quite a serious one, and only had a couple of matches really.”

“So I don’t think he’s available for selection now anyway, so he’s unfortunate in the way that has played out in this year in particular. But if he can get back playing and playing regularly I’m sure, post-summer… “

“It’s going to be difficult for him I think to get the number of games he needs now. But we know he’s a talented player.”

Southgate has picked up a reputation for paying less attention to the pedigree of the club that his players are playing for and putting more emphasis on compatibility and form.

Author’s Take:

The race for the spots in the midfield department in the England squad is on the rise with several options with only a few spots. Danny Drinkwater will have to make most of his chances for the Blues if he needs to be considered for the call-up to the national squad. Whereas, Barkley would hope that his horrible tryst with injuries end soon so that he can get his career back on track. The midfielder can take some positives out by considering the manager’s trust in him.

The post Chelsea duo likely to miss out on World Cup: National boss appeared first on The12thMan.



This post first appeared on THE TWELFTH MAN TIMES, please read the originial post: here

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