England have confirmed that they have informed two players that they will not be part of Gareth Southgate's squad for Euro 2024.
Southgate initially selected a 33-player squad ahead of two friendly internationals against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iceland respectively.
That decision was taken to spread out minutes among the squad after a long season and give fringe members the chance to impress ahead of the tournament in Germany.
On Monday night, the Three Lions ran out 3-0 victors over the first of those opponents with Cole Palmer, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Harry Kane getting their names on the scoresheet.
However, it was the likes of Adam Wharton and Jack Grealish - two players deemed outsiders for selection - who caught the eye with their appearances off the substitutes' bench.
While their displays were a natural positive for Southgate, the flipside to the argument is that other squad members dropped down the pecking order.
© Reuters
Maddison, Jones miss out
Multiple reports on Thursday morning had indicated that James Maddison would be one of the players who would miss out and had already been informed by Southgate.
Later in the day, England formally announced that the Tottenham Hotspur playmaker and Liverpool's Curtis Jones would not feature in the final 26-player group.
On X, a statement read: "We thank them for being an important part of our pre-tournament preparation."
.@Madders10 and @curtisjr_10 have departed the England camp, having been told they are not part of our final #EURO2024 squad.
— England (@England) June 6, 2024
We thank them for being an important part of our pre-tournament preparation 👊 pic.twitter.com/kHkwfjEAi0
Why have Maddison, Jones not made the cut?
As well as the aforementioned impacts of Wharton and Grealish, Eberechi Eze also caught the eye from the starting lineup.
Nevertheless, the fact that Maddison has been dropped before the second friendly should be viewed as a surprise after he featured for the final 29 minutes at St James' Park.
However, as Maddison has alluded to on Thursday, his form during the second half of the season was below-par, even though he chipped in with two assists during the final three Premier League games.
Maddison said: "I trained well and worked hard all week but if I'm honest with myself, my form for Spurs when coming back from injury in the second half of the season probably wasn't at the levels I had set which gave Gareth a decision to make.
As for Jones, making the squad was viewed as a long shot having not yet earned a senior cap under Southgate
He also contributed just one goal and one assist in 23 appearances for Liverpool in the Premier League during 2023-24.
