Manchester United players have ‘lot to do’ to make World Cup, warns Southgate

Gareth Southgate has warned his missing Manchester United contingent that they face a battle to regain their places for the World Cup as he looked ahead to the challenges of an unprecedented mid-season tournament, which begins on 21 November.

The England manager is preparing for the fourth and last game of the end-of-season Nations League programme against Hungary at Molineux on Tuesday night. But his thoughts are increasingly focused on fine-tuning his squad for Qatar – expected to number 26 players rather than the usual 23 – and how he will manage what he called the “strange lead-in” to the finals.

During a look through the potential marginal gains, Southgate was asked whether United’s lack of Champions League football next season might leave their England players a little bit fresher. “We’ve only got one with us,” Southgate shot back, with a nod towards Harry Maguire. “They’ve got a lot to do to get back in the squad.”

Southgate was referring to Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho – the former out of the picture because of injury, the latter pair omitted because of poor form. Shaw, too, has had a disappointing season, although with Southgate without a recognised left-back – Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell only returned on the final day of the season for his club after a six-month cruciate knee ligament injury – Shaw would appear to have a clearer route back.

Southgate was surprisingly unsympathetic towards Rashford when he dropped him for the March get-together, noting pointedly that the forward had withdrawn from six of the previous eight squads. He called the decision to exclude him and continue to overlook Sancho as “fairly straightforward.”

It is not a phrase that Southgate would use in relation to the World Cup