England manager Gareth Southgate wants to call up West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice to his next squad after the Hammers star declared for the Three Lions on Wednesday, according to Sky Sports.
The outlet claims that Southgate is keen to bring the 20-year-old into his senior set up, but that international regulations could prevent him from doing so.
The Three Lions boss selects his next squad in March, but FIFA’s time-consuming transference of players’ international status could mean Rice will miss out. No request to change Rice’s status has yet been made.
The youngster has been at the centre of a tug of war between England and the Republic of Ireland in recent months, but finally declared for the country of his birth on Wednesday.
OPINION
This comes as no surprise, really. As a young, impressive Premier League regular Rice fits Southgate’s criteria for a call up and so it was never going to take long for the England boss to call him up once he declared for the Three Lions. He may not be a starting-calibre player for England just yet, but he has certainly shown this season that he is good enough to be in amongst it at international level. However, it doesn’t look like he’ll be present in the next squad. It seems slightly strange that no request to change Rice’s status has yet been submitted. Surely England would want to get on with the process as quickly as possible so that he can represent Southgate’s team as soon as he can. However, nothing has yet been done apparently. Still, hopefully Rice will just miss the one squad and will be called up for the next one, because he’s certainly someone who could contribute to this England side.