Marcus Rashford has not kicked a ball for England since that fateful penalty shootout in the European Championship final against Italy last July. Jadon Sancho has appeared just once. And after being left out of Gareth Southgate’s latest squad today (Thursday), the Manchester United duo really are running out of time to force their way into his World Cup plans.
Both have contributed to United’s upturn over recent weeks, as they recovered from a difficult start to manager Erik ten Hag’s tenure, but it was not enough to earn a recall for this month’s Nations League meetings with Italy and Germany — England’s last two games before that World Cup opener against Iran on November 21.
Rashford tweeted after the announcement that he was not actually available for England duty this time “as I’ve picked up an untimely injury”, having missed United’s opening two Europa League matches against Real Sociedad last week and FC Sheriff tonight. But that does not change the reality that Southgate picked his squad in the belief Rashford would be fit.
Ivan Toney was preferred, winning his first England call-up at any level after an excellent start to the season with Brentford.
Southgate is a loyal manager — he has shown that once more by retaining Harry Maguire, whose travails at United have continued into the new campaign — but once a player has lost his favour, it is not always easy to win it back.
Just ask Eric Dier, who felt he could hardly have done more to merit a recall last season, which he considered the best of his career at Tottenham Hotspur. He is now finally back after an 18-month absence from the squad and another four since his last cap.
With the World Cup two months away, though, it is a 28-strong squad which prompts a familiar question: if a manager claims to pick players based on form, how can he continually pick Maguire (and for that matter his colleague Luke Shaw, who has lost his place under Ten Hag and not played since being hooked at half-time of that Brentford embarrassment a month ago, and Kalvin Phillips, who has played just 15 minutes of football following his summer move from Leeds United to Manchester City) while, say, Maximilian Kilman, in excellent form for Wolverhampton Wanderers, misses out?
The answer is relatively simple.
In Maguire’s case, while his United form has been a concern, he has been an integral part of this England team for five years and has been one of their most impressive, consistent performers over that time. Similar could be said of Phillips over a shorter period.