Manchester United star Harry Maguire remains key to England chances, says boss Gareth Southgate

Maguire, who went to St Mary’s Roman Catholic High School in Chesterfield as a youngster, has struggled for form this season and has been frozen out in recent games by new United boss Erik ten Hag.

But Southgate plans to use Maguire in tonight’s Nations League game with Italy and sees him as an important player in England’s World Cup plans.

Speaking to the media ahead of the game in Milan, Southgate said: “Whatever reputation I have, I’m putting it on [the line]. I think, look, you always have to back your judgment and we feel he is an important player.

“Look, clearly, it’s not an ideal situation [that Maguire has been dropped by United]. You want your best players playing regularly so that they’re physically in a good place and mentally in a good place. But he is an important player for us. I think it’s important to back our best players.

“He understands that he’s at a big club, big transfer fee and captain of the club so I think that’s why the spotlight has been on him more. But he’s focused on training well every day and getting himself back in the team.

"The squad we’ve picked, there are a fair number of players you could argue we could have left out, but I think we wanted to keep that group together and to keep them involved. But also they know that, for some of them, that they need to be playing more regularly because now we’re only a few weeks on from pre-season, so, physically, if they’ve had a few 90 minutes, that’s fine. Another seven or eight weeks, that does start to become more complicated.”