England axes Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden from national squad after sneaking girls into team hotel

Manchester City’s Phil Foden and Manchester United’s Mason Greenwood have been removed from the England squad for violating the country’s self-isolation rules by secretly bringing girls into the team hotel in Iceland.

The young players had just made their senior international debuts in the 1-0 win over Iceland on Saturday, September 5, before their breach.

Icelandic newspaper DV posted Snapchat videos on Monday, September 7, showing the footballers with two girls in their hotel room.

Footage of Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden in the hotel in Iceland. pic.twitter.com/AamTEissem

— CrypticTrey.🖌️ (@Marti9al) September 7, 2020

One of the girls in the Snapchat video, interviewed by DV, said, ‘We had no idea about these [Covid-19] rules, they never said we could not take pictures.’

Another girl claimed to have been in a relationship ‘with one of the boys for a few days’ and stated, ‘The only thing I can say is that I had been talking to one of them for a few days. I’m not going to say where.’

England coach Gareth Southgate, confirming their expulsion, stated at a pre-match press conference, “Unfortunately this morning it was brought to my attention that two boys have broken the Covid guidelines in terms of our secure bubble and we had to decide very quickly that they couldn’t have any interaction with the team or travel to training.”

Southgate added, “Nothing has happened in the areas we occupy in the hotel. We are still getting to the depths of all the information because this was only brought to my attention a couple of hours before training, so I’m still getting to grips with the detail.”

Regarding the young duo, Southgate continued, “It is a very serious situation and we have treated it that way. Obviously, they have been naive, we have dealt with it appropriately. I recognize their age but the whole world is dealing with this pandemic. These are two boys I don’t know particularly well at the moment so can’t speak in great depth. I have got to try and speak with them later in the appropriate way.”

“They have got responsibilities and they have apologized. Unfortunately, the two boys are going to find themselves in a situation where there’s going to be a lot of judgment of them from afar. So it’s not for me to make that more difficult for them. They understand their responsibilities,” added Southgate.

Foden has a two-year-old son and a long-term girlfriend, while United star Greenwood broke up with his model girlfriend in May.

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