Foden, Palmer and Watkins withdraw from England duty

The Football Association (FA) have announced that Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Ollie Watkins have now all withdrawn from the England squad ahead of the September international break.

Phil Foden has been suffering from illness and missed Manchester City’s 3-1 defeat of West Ham United at the weekend with City boss Pep Guardiola suggesting he expected Foden to have to miss this set of fixtures.

Ollie Watkins, who scored England’s winning goal against the Netherlands in the semi-finals of UEFA EURO 2024, did not play any minutes for Aston Villa in pre-season and has started the season in quite rusty form.

Cole Palmer, PFA Young Player of the Year, provider of the assist for that Watkins goal and a scorer in the final of UEFA EURO 2024 for the Three Lions, has also withdrawn due to an injury.

It is the first set of matches in the post-Gareth Southgate era with Lee Carsley taking charge on an interim basis after a successful few years as manager of the England U21 side, including winning the UEFA U21 European Championships last summer.

England will face Ireland at the AVIVA Stadium in Dublin on Saturday to kick off their UEFA Nations League League B campaign before they then face Finland at Wembley Stadium in what could be the milestone occasion of Harry Kane’s 100th cap.