Southgate: “England doors remain open to Rashford and Sancho”

confirmed his squad for the upcoming

games as the

duo Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho missed the cut. England will face

away on September 23 before hosting

three days later

Despite this being the last national squad before the Qatar 2022 World Cup, Gareth Southgate says the door is still for the duo. While

is sidelined due to a knee injury,

is trying to return to his

shape as he has scored two goals in 6 opening

games for United, including one against

.

"

There were certain players we wanted to keep involved this time, but that said, it doesn't mean that this is the end for some of the others who aren't involved,"

Southgate stated.

"Marcus Rashford, for example, has shown some encouraging signs recently. He is a player we know well so if he can perform at a high level in the next few weeks, he of course will be under consideration."

Brentford's

earned his first call-up while

was recalled to England after a long time. Southgate added:

"With Eric, he has been playing well for a period of time.

 "We think it is a really close call across our centre-backs, and he has deserved to be picked back in the group.

"We know what a good character he is. He fits in with the culture and has great international experience and leadership qualities.

"With Ivan Toney, we have been tracking him for a long time. I had a good chat with Thomas Frank about him last season.

"His form and his qualities – not only his goalscoring but his technical ability, build-up play and aerial prowess – gives us a different threat to some of the other players we could pick."

The

boss went on bemoaning the lack of game-time for some of his key members like

and

.

"

Clearly, we have a number of players including Ben Chilwell, Luke Shaw, Harry Maguire and Kalvin Phillips who are not playing a lot of minutes with their club,"

he added.

"It is not ideal, but we feel they have been, and can be, important players for us. It is not a perfect situation, but there is still a lot of football to be played before Qatar.”

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