UEFA has reduced the permitted squad size at Euro 2024 to 23 players. It was 26 players at the World Cup and Euro 2020 but now three players will have to be slashed.
The 26-player rule was introduced to help national teams due to Covid but has now been absolished.
And it could be bad news for Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jordan Henderson as Gareth Southgate will have to face a lot of selection dilemmas.
The Al Ettifaq midfielder will have to battle with Trent, Bellingham, Mount Gallagher, Rice, Palmer, Stones, Ward-Prowse and Phillips — and only Bellingham and Rice are 100% going to the Euros if not injured.
Trent, despite his position change, is still not a guaranteed starter for England, neither at right-back nor at midfielder. So the Liverpool man have to compete with Walker, Trippier and James for a right-back spot or Henderson and the aforementioned players for a place in the midfield.
"The size of the squad makes it a different sort of thought process because you've had that leeway in the last couple of tournaments to take players that weren't going to be fit for the first couple of games," Gareth Southgate told ESPN about the rule change.
"This time the physical conditioning of players is going to be really important. The ability for players to bat out six, seven games ... If you can only take two for each position, players that are adaptable are helpful."
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