England player 'brutally axed from Euro 2024 squad' by Gareth Southgate

Gareth Southgate has already cut one player from his provisional squad ahead of the June 7 deadline to finalise his 26-man England squad.

The England boss selected a 33-man squad ahead of this summer’s European Championship with seven of those set to be cut when the final squad is released.

Southgate opted against taking regular England internationals such as Jordan Henderson, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling, opting to take a look at younger previously uncapped stars such as Jarell Quansah and Adam Wharton.

Wharton in particular impressed in the friendly win against Bosnia and Herzegovina and it has since been revealed one England player has already been sent home from the camp.

Southgate will now need to drop six more players after it emerged that Tottenham star James Maddison would not be selected in the final squad, according to The Athletic's David Ornstein.

The 27-year-old featured in the 3-0 friendly win against Bosnia but will not travel with the final group to Germany.

Maddison was included in Southgate’s 2022 World Cup squad in Qatar but did not make a single appearance in the tournament.

He made 28 appearances in the Premier League under Ange Postecoglou, netting four goals and registering nine assists.

James Maddison has been cut from the squad

Maddison's omission could be due to Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold featuring in a midfield role with Southgate admitting he was impressed by what he saw from the 25-year-old.

He said: "We were very pleased.

“It is a role he is discovering and he is hungry to learn and has been since I talked to him about playing it a year or so ago, and equally what we saw in the last half an hour is also an important option for us as well.

“We are going to have different challenges in this tournament, and we are going to have to have different ways of solving problems that teams pose us.”

England’s final warm up game before the tournament takes place on Friday against Iceland at Wembley.

Their first group game is against Serbia on June 16.