Star-studded England side giving 'selection headache' to Gareth Southgate ahead of Euro 2024

England have one of the best squads in the world but it has given a headache to head coach Gareth Southgate who has to finalise a 23-man squad in a team full of stars.

The provisional squad has to be announced on May 21 and Southgate will look to call more than 23 players as he will have to deal with injuries as well as late arrivals of key players.

While the final squad is due to be submitted to UEFA on June 8, some players may not even be with the team by then due to Cup and Champions League finals should their team reach that.

Southgate was asked about the complications he is currently facing not just in terms of selecting 23 players but also with injuries.

“Yeah, it’s going to be complicated, because firstly the injury situations that we have,” he said. “Some will be back playing at the weekend, some will be back playing in a couple of weeks, and some will be really close to the end of the season.

“Then we’re going to have the European finals, the FA Cup final and the two friendlies that we’ve got ourselves.

“It’s inevitable we’re going to be naming a longer squad, which is what we did before the Euros here even though we were dealing with 26 then.

“We really don’t know (how many will be in the provisional squad) because there are so many questions on the injuries at the moment.

“But we’ve gained valuable information about so many players this week.”

After winning the 1966 World Cup, the closest England ever came to tasting international glory was in 2021 when they played the Euro 2020 final against Italy and lost.

With one of the most complete and talented squads consisting of stars like Jude Bellingham, Jack Grealish, James Maddison, Trent-Alexander Arnold and others, England remain one of the favourites to lift the elusive title.

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