James Ward-Prowse breaks silence on England SNUB as he takes thinly-veiled dig at Three Lions aces
JAMES WARD-PROWSE aimed a thinly-veiled dig at England rivals Kalvin Phillips and Jordan Henderson after not being selected by Gareth Southgate.
The West Ham midfielder, 28, whipped in the corner which Nayef Aguerd headed home to hand the Hammers a 2-1 win away at Freiburg in the Europa League on Thursday evening.
Ward-Prowse has now scored two goals and provided six assists in just eight games since joining West Ham from Southampton in the summer.
Yet he was still left out of Southgate’s England squad on Thursday for the Three Lions’ upcoming internationals against Australia and Italy.
It is the second successive England squad he has missed out on in a matter of weeks.
Meanwhile, Manchester City’s Kalvin Phillips was picked again despite playing just 70 minutes in the Premier League so far this season.
Jordan Henderson was also selected even though he is now playing for Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia.
And when asked after West Ham’s European victory about his omission, Ward-Prowse was quick to ironically claim it is “important that you play regularly”.
Speaking to TNT Sports, he said: “Yeah, huge disappointment [not to be selected for England duty].
“Like I said many times in interviews, you can only control what you can control as a player, and that’s playing to a certain level that you believe is good enough to be in that squad.
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“It’s important that you play regularly and I’m doing both at the minute. I feel like I’m in a good place, and it’s not gone my way.
“But I’m focused on West Ham, doing my best for this club and enjoying every minute of it, so long that may that continue.”
Ward-Prowse has earned 11 England caps since making his debut in 2017.
But he has not played for the national time since June 2022 when he started in the Three Lions’ goalless draw with Italy.