England head coach Gareth Southgate has made an honest admission regarding Callum Hudson-Odoi’s recent form at Chelsea after he was left out of the England squad.

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The 20-year-old has been in excellent form for Thomas Tuchel’s side in recent weeks. Speaking to the press after announcing the England squad, Southgate praised Hudson-Odoi.

He said: "He has had a couple of good matches for Chelsea. I know Thomas [Tuchel] is guarded about how much he goes with praise on that but it is good to see him back playing and playing more regularly at first-team level and he knows the challenge that’s ahead."

Hudson-Odoi rejected the chance to link back up with England Under-21s and Southgate believes Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi has missed an opportunity by turning down an England Under-21 call-up.

"You’ve been with the senior team, he went back to play with the U21s in the last cycle and then to go again in a second cycle, I can understand is a difficult challenge. So we would still like him to do that but he wants to back himself with his Chelsea form to get back into the seniors and I totally respect that. So by not being in the Under-21s he misses a bit of an opportunity to impress us and come across if we need players for training and those sorts of things."
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It was previously reported that the England manager was attemtping to convince Hudson-Odoi to continue his international career with England. With another snub on the national stage, Hudson-Odoi could opt to feature for Ghana instead.

However, Chelsea trio Ben Chilwell, Reece James and Mason Mount were called up. Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Trevoh Chalobah also failed to receive recognition for their fine form as Southgate named his squad.


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