Marcus Rashford is set to be a high-profile absentee from England manager Gareth Southgate’s provisional Euro 2024 squad, the PA news agency understands.
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 and PA understands he will not be in the expanded squad named at 2pm.
Reports suggest former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, currently at Ajax, may also have been omitted on this occasion.
Several players who are injury doubts are expected to 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 around 30 players will be selected on Tuesday, with Manchester United defender Luke Shaw expected to get 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 set to be 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 he will still be 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.
