Gareth Southgate insists Callum Hudson-Odoi is still in his England plans despite the Chelsea player snubbing an England Under-21 call-up.
Hudson-Odoi turned down the chance to join up with the Under-21 squad for their latest camp and instead decided to continue training at Chelsea.
The 20-year-old, whose career has stalled under Thomas Tuchel, has three senior England caps and most recently represented England against Kosovo in November 2019.
Hudson-Odoi is able to switch his international allegiance and represent Ghana but Southgate has told him he can still have a future with England.
Southgate said: "I think Callum was in the team at Chelsea at a time when we felt he was pushing for a place in our squad.
"The club form often dictates some of those opportunities and he had a really bad injury of course, which put him out of the running for a long period of time.
"It’s always difficult for a young player when you’ve been with the seniors and then you’re not with the seniors to make that climb back, but that’s the challenge for him.
"At his club at the moment it looks as though he’s going to play in certain matches as a wing-back and it’s going to be more challenging to get in that front three at Chelsea now that [Romelu] Lukaku is there as well, so I think the Under-21s can be an important part of his development."
