As a 22-year-old full international with an outside chance of making the winter World Cup squad, playing for England's Under-21 team is not where Conor Gallagher will have wanted to be during this first international break. But when he chose to stay at Chelsea this summer he must always have known it was a possibility.
It would be too simplistic to say that Gallagher's start to the season could only have ended two ways; one being as a wildcard option for Gareth Southgate to look at during the final England games before the tournament in Qatar, and the other being in Lee Carsley's U21 set-up.
That is the risk that he took though. Gallagher playing week-in-week-out for Patrick Viera, scoring goals and causing havoc in opposition defences was the spark that caught Southgate's eye in the first place. Even with a good start to the season at Stamford Bridge, there was no guarantee he would be picked for this squad. Had he gone to Crystal Palace this summer and started well there's still no certainty that he would have been included.
