A flurry of withdrawals from senior players has hit interim England manager Lee Carsley’s plans for his final two games in charge this week.
Experienced internationals Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish are among eight players to have pulled out – many citing injury – from the third international break of a busy season.
Some reports have cited pressure from clubs for the amount of drop-outs, with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola critical of Grealish’s initial call-up for Nations League games against Greece and Republic of Ireland.
And for players and fans, these two games represent a strange ‘limbo’ period before new head coach Thomas Tuchel takes over in January.
The five replacements called up by Carsley, including Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers and Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite, both 22, have taken the squad’s average age down to 25 years and four months, including five uncapped players.
England’s Euro 2024 squad under former manager Gareth Southgate had an average age of 26.1 years, which was already the third youngest at the tournament behind Turkey (25.8) and the Czech Republic (25.3).
Carsley said he would put “his own stamp” on the England squad during his time as interim boss and “freshen it up” with each get-together. He has certainly done that.
He has again turned to ‘England pathway’ players he knows well from his time as Under 21 manager, and even with Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill dropping out, there are still eight players from his Euro 2023 squad which beat Spain 1-0 in the final.
However, this is one of the least experienced squads in recent history, with Harry Kane (100) and Kyle Walker (95) making up almost half of the 400 caps across the entire squad. England’s high-profile withdrawals have 240 caps between them.
England need to win these two matches to earn automatic promotion back to the top level of the Nations League and ensure Tuchel’s first game is not a Nations League play-off rather than the World Cup qualifier he says he has planned for.
Tuchel will not be in Greece and Carsley said the German has had no influence over the squad selection for this match – and that “he is highly respectful” of the job that Carsley and his staff are doing.
Ultimately, Carsley’s lasting impact could be fast-tracking the next generation of England stars quicker than expected.
It all makes for an interesting ‘audition’ for some players in this squad… BBC Sport takes a look.
