Gareth Southgate today has to restrict the number of players who can gatecrash England’s World Cup squad to a provisional 55 names.
While managers can change the members of their final 26-man squads right up until kick-off in their first game, they can only select replacements from this initial pool that has to be submitted to FIFA. The process is mainly an administrative one, so that FIFA can check the eligibility of players who have any sort of chance of featuring in the tournament.
As a result, the FA policy is not to reveal the names, as the higher numbers on the list are largely irrelevant and bear no relevance to the chances of future selection. Nevertheless, clubs will be informed as a courtesy in the coming days which of their players are in contention for a late call-up so that they are best able to prepare domestic programmes during the tournament itself.
However, there will be no attempt made to contact players directly with Southgate keen to play down the importance of this particular selection cut-off. But we have had a look and considered which fringe players could be on Southgate's lips and have the potential to make a bolt to be in the final squad.
