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.
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."
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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