Gareth Southgate to speak to England players about 'what it means to wear shirt'
- Published
In form Calvert-Lewin among trio of new England call-ups
England boss Gareth Southgate will talk to his squad about "what it means to wear the shirt" when they gather next week to play three games in six days.
Midfielder Phil Foden, 20, and forward Mason Greenwood, 19, were left out of the squad to face Wales, Belgium and Denmark after breaching coronavirus quarantine rules in Iceland last month.
Southgate plans to give his players "some reminders on how we work".
"That's not a case of reading the riot act," he said.
"That's a case of asking the players what sort of team they want to be involved in and be a part of.
"I think they have shown so many positives over the last years but we had not been together for 10 months."
Manchester City's Foden and Manchester United's Greenwood made their senior international debuts in Iceland.
But both left the camp after an "unacceptable" breach of coronavirus quarantine guidelines for which Southgate said they had apologised.
They will now miss the friendly against Wales on 8 October plus Nations League fixtures against Belgium and Denmark on 11 and 14 October respectively. All three games will be played at Wembley.
Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Leicester forward Harvey Barnes and Arsenal defender Bukayo Saka are in the squad.
"What we found in the last camp was lots of new players coming in," said Southgate.
"I think always you have to work at culture. It never is embedded forever, it's constantly evolving. The team group is constantly evolving as players come and go.
"So you have always got to keep affecting that, keep addressing that, and we will discuss the shirt, what it means to wear the shirt and some reminders on how we work."
Could Southgate recall Vardy?
Leicester striker Jamie Vardy stepped away from international duty after the 2018 World Cup to focus on his club career.
But the 33-year-old was the Premier League's top goalscorer last season with 23 and has five in three top-flight games so far this season.
"We know that Jamie is still around and we still communicate a lot," said Southgate.
"I think at this moment in time we are in agreement that it's good to keep looking at these younger players.
"I'm not in any way ruling him out if it's the right thing at the right time to bring him back into the fold."
What about Euro 2021?
Euro 2020 was delayed until next year because of the coronavirus pandemic and is now scheduled to take place from 11 June to 11 July across 12 countries.
Asked if he was concerned Covid-19 could still impact the Euros next summer, Southgate said: "We've got to be realistic there has to be a high chance of that being the case.
"The pandemic by nature of the word is not just affecting us it is affecting the whole world.
"We don't really know where we'll be in terms of fans in the stadiums."