Raheem Sterling has again been overlooked by England boss Gareth Southgate for the Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy later this month.

Southgate said the Chelsea forward was ‘not happy’ to be left out of the party for September’s get-together and – at least at this stage – he will play no part against Italy or in the friendly against Australia.

Ollie Watkins was brought back to the England squad following his hat-trick against Brighton last weekend – his second of the campaign after also hitting a treble in the Europa Conference League qualifiers against Hibernian.

Jarrod Bowen was also recalled after starting the season with five goals and one assist in seven league games, while John Stones returns after injury.

Bukayo Saka was also included in the 26-man group despite suffering an injury during Arsenal‘s Champions League defeat in Lens on Tuesday.

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Eberechi Eze and Callum Wilson were named in the last squad but both miss out this time due to injury.

When leaving out Sterling on that occasion, Southgate said: ‘It is a difficult call and Raheem is not happy about it. Raheem will always say, ‘I respect your decision’, but he wants to get back in the group.

‘I understood why he wanted to focus on his fitness in June and we’re seeing the benefits of that now. But I’d have to leave somebody out who has done very well for us in order to recall him. I didn’t think that would be right.’

On his omission, a statement from Sterling’s camp read: ‘Raheem will revert to the coach for all comment but would like to reinforce that the decision has been respected. Raheem will continue to focus on his domestic form.’

Speaking after the latest squad announcement, Southgate said he’d not been in touch with Sterling this time.

He added: ‘We spoke before the last squad and we’ve been happy with the wide players’ performances in the last four games in particular and in the two in March. 

‘The team are playing really well and clearly there’s some stability there.

‘We have added Jarrod Bowen in those wide areas, he’s scored five in seven games and is playing really well and with the Australia game as well there’s the opportunity to learn some different things as well.’

On the recall for Watkins, Southgate said: ‘Callum Wilson is carrying an injury and we were not certain he would be available.

‘Ollie has started the season well – he’s hit a bit of scoring form in the last couple of weeks. You have to be careful with that because you can’t just go on recency bias with selection.

‘But he is in good form and obviously coming in on a high and he’s been with us before so we know his character, his personality – he is a good guy around the group.

‘His team are playing well and he’s playing for a team that are really well coached and they are in a good moment.’

With regular left-backs Luke Shaw and Ben Chilwell out injured, Southgate spoke about Levi Colwill slotting in there as he does for Chelsea.

He said: ‘We’re conscious that most of his football has been as a centre-back and I think that’s his preference and his strongest position but equally we’re without a lot of experience at left-back and he’s playing there regularly and we’ve got some other centre-backs that can fill in at full-back areas as well.

‘It’s an area where we need to find out a bit about one or two players because that depth in that position in particular in the league is not strong.

‘But we really like Levi – he had a fantastic season last year with Brighton, an excellent Euros with our Under-21s, he’s adapting well to life back at Chelsea and he’s got a real maturity about his game, We’re very hopeful about his future.’