England name attacking squad as Maguire, Grealish miss out

MANCHESTER, England :Harry Maguire and Jack Grealish were the high-profile omissions as England manager Gareth Southgate named a European Championship squad on Thursday packed with attacking talent but short of defensive experience.

Jude Bellingham, who helped Real Madrid win the Champions League, Bayern Munich's Harry Kane, Phil Foden, who had a breakout season with Manchester City, and Arsenal's Bukayo Saka headline a powerful group of forwards.

"I'm excited," Southgate told reporters. "The other night (a 3-0 win over Bosnia & Herzegovina), we had a lot of experienced attacking players not on the starting grid. And we had a lot of goals in the team still.

"In an attacking sense, that's really crucial. The profile of our midfield, the way we're moving the ball forward more quickly, seeing forward passes, that excites me watching training," he added.

Injuries impacted the selections in defence with Manchester United's Maguire, who has 63 caps, the highest-profile player Southgate left out.

"The decision on Harry is totally about his physical condition and his recovery from the injury," Southgate said.

"There is no other reason as he is one of our strongest centre backs."

The 31-year-old Maguire said he was "devastated" to be left out of the squad.

"Simply, I am absolutely gutted," Maguire wrote on social media. "For me, representing England is the highest honour. It means everything to me. If I can't help the team as a player, I will support them as a fan - along with the rest of the country."

Maguire's fellow United defender Luke Shaw did make the squad despite ongoing injury issues.

"I think you can take one gamble. That's a gamble where we've got enough evidence that it could pay off," Southgate said of Shaw, who did not train