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Gareth Southgate Reacts To Mason Greenwood And Phil Foden's COVID Breach

Gareth Southgate Reacts To Mason Greenwood And Phil Foden's COVID Breach

Both players will not feature in Tuesday's clash with Denmark.

Daniel Marland

Daniel Marland

Gareth Southgate has confirmed Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden have been sent home from England duty after breaching COVID rules.

The duo were videoed with girls following Saturday's 1-0 win over Iceland and broke strict coronavirus guidelines in the country.

Southgate addressed the media on Monday afternoon and confirmed the youngsters have been dismissed from the squad and will not feature against Denmark on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately this morning it was brought to my attention that two boys have broken the COVID guidelines in terms of our secure bubble and so we had to decide very quickly that they couldn't have any interaction with the team," he begun.

"They've been naive, I recognise their age but the whole world is dealing with this pandemic & there's responsibility on every age group in playing their part and not spreading the virus. They have apologised."

Southgate went on to confirm "nothing happened" in the areas England occupied during their stay in Reykjavik.

When asked if the Manchester United and Manchester City stars left the hotel, Southgate replied: "I am not going into any more details until I am clear on everything.

"Nobody from outside our party has ben to the areas of the hotel we're occupying.

"We're still getting to the depths of all the information as this was only brought to my attention a couple of hours before training, as you've seen we've had to train in between.

"What is clear is there was a breach of the COVID guideline. We've spent such a long time getting those measures in place and the whole squad have followed that to the letter.

"We've had four tests in the period we've been together, our staff have done an incredible job of keeping that secure and tight which was important both to get the game played, and also for the safety and security of our team and staff.

"In that respect, we have no alternative to doing what we're doing."

The Football Association are currently investigating the breaches.

Both players received their first cap during over the weekend, with Foden starting the game and Greenwood coming off the bench.

United and City have both commented on the situation, with United stating they are "disappointed" with Greenwood.

City also condemned Foden and called his behaviour "totally inappropriate."

Featured Image Credit: Sky Sports & DV

Topics: Phil Foden, Football News, Football, Mason Greenwood, England, Gareth Southgate, Iceland