The head coach of the England national team, Gareth Southgate has confirmed that Mason Greenwood and his family reached an agreement with him that they want the footballer to stay away from the national team until 2022.
Recall that Mason Greenwood who made his international debut on September 5, 2020, against Iceland has not made any international appearance since then.
After the game against Iceland, he and Manchester City football star, Phil Foden, breached England national team coronavirus protocol by bringing ladies to their hotel room.
The action forced coach Gareth Southgate to send them out of the national team camp. After keeping them out of the team for a while, the coach decided to invite them back to the team ahead of the European Championship in June 2021.
Unfortunately for Mason Greenwood, he was injured before he could join up with the national team. Hence, the 20-year-old right-winger had to withdraw from the squad.
As for Phil Foden, the Manchester City star played in the European Championship without his friend who has not been invited back to the team after the Championship.
Ahead of November FIFA international break, it was expected that coach Gareth Southgate would invite Greenwood. But to the dismay of many, the Manchester United star was left out of the team again.
This means that he would not play for England in the World Cup qualification match against Albania on November 12 and against San Marino on November 15.
In a press conference after the announcement of the squad for the matches, Southgate said Greenwood still has enough time to return to the team in the future.
“I think we had a discussion before the camp in September and we came to an agreement”, Southgate said.
“John McDermott [Football Association technical director] and I went to United and had a good chat with Mason and his family and we agreed we would park this until next year basically. We would leave the autumn games.
“Of course you always run the risk that other people are going to come through, but he’s young enough that there is time here.
“It’s not that he doesn’t want to be with us. We totally understand the situation. I and John, in particular, Steve Holland [England assistant coach] through his time coaching with lots of young players… we understand this journey they are going on.”
So far this season, Mason Greenwood has played for Manchester United 13 times in all competitions. He has scored four goals and provided an assist for United.
Gareth Southgate explains why Manchester United trio Jesse Lingard, Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood are not in the England squad 👀 pic.twitter.com/0msC8i8TzV
— Mirror Football (@MirrorFootball) November 5, 2021
Below is England squad for November international break without Mason Greenwood:
Goalkeepers:
- Sam Johnstone
- Jordan Pickford
- Aaron Ramsdale
Defenders
- Trent Alexander-Arnold
- Ben Chilwell
- Conor Coady
- Reece James
- Harry Maguire
- Tyrone Mings
- Luke Shaw
- John Stones
- Kyle Walker
Midfielders
- Jude Bellingham
- Jordan Henderson
- Mason Mount
- Kalvin Phillips
- Declan Rice
- James Ward-Prowse
Attackers
- Tammy Abraham
- Phil Foden
- Jack Grealish
- Harry Kane
- Marcus Rashford
- Bukayo Saka
- Raheem Sterling
"We think it's a little bit early to bring those guys in."
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) November 4, 2021
Gareth Southgate discusses some of the selection choices he's had to make in his latest England squad. 🦁🦁🦁 pic.twitter.com/gtUXlVC8dm
