The head coach of the England national team, Gareth Southgate, has dropped the trio of Tammy Abraham, Ben Chilwell, and Jadon Sancho from the country’s football squad after breaching the team’s restrictions.
The trio was part of the coach’s squad for the country’s friendly against Wales on October 8. But they won’t longer be part of it. They will have to be tested for COVID-19 before they could rejoin the team for the county’s European Nations League doubleheader against Belgium on October 11, and against Denmark on October 14.
But as of the time of publishing this report, Gareth Southgate was yet to decide whether he would allow them to rejoin the team early enough for the two competitive matches.
On Saturday, October 3, Chelsea’s striker, Tammy Abraham turned 23 and his family and friends decided to throw him a surprise birthday party at his apartment in London.
Among the friends at the party were his Chelsea’s teammate Ben Chilwell and Borussia Dortmund’s star Jadon Sancho. This party took place when the players were already shortlisted to be part of the England squad that will play against Wales on Thursday.
Their crime was that there were about 20 people in the apartment which was more than the maximum of 6 people the government of the United Kingdom permits per gathering in order to limit the spread of COVID-19.
When the news broke and the FA announced that the football governing body in England has started investigating the breach of the coronavirus rule, Tammy Abraham issued a statement to apologize for breaching the rule and stressed that he was not aware that such a party was being organized for him.
He said: “On Saturday evening, I arrived home to find a small surprise gathering had beeorganizeded for me, with family and close friends, to celebrate my birthday.
“Although I was totally unaware this was planned, I would like to wholeheartedlapologizese for the naivety shown by all for the organization and attending this gathering.
“recognizes that I have a responsibility both in my professional and personal life honor and respect the guidelines and deeply regret that this took place. All I can do now is learn from apologizes to everyone and ensure it never happens again.”
Before they were officially dropped from the England squad for the match against Wales, Ben Chilwell and Jadon Sancho have also apologized for breaching the coronavirus guidelines.
This is the second time in two months that players coach Gareth Southgate invited into the England national team breached the term’s protocol of avoiding contact with people outside the squad in order not to serve as a COVID-19 risk to the rest of the team.
The first set of players to be involved in such incident were Manchester United’s Mason Greenwood and Manchester City’s Phil Foden. They both brought in Icelandic ladies into their hotel rooms while on national duty. Southgate had to send them packing to serve as a deterrent to others. But it is obvious that Greenwood and Foden’s example is not enough.
