Jack Grealish has opened up on being left out of the England squad for Euro 2024 this past summer.
The Manchester City winger was one of a number of high-profile omissions from Gareth Southgate’s 26-man panel, including Marcus Rashford and Harry Maguire.
The 28-year-old says it was the toughest moment of his career, but wants to use the pain o his exclusion to bounce back with his club this season.
“I’ll be honest it was probably, football-wise, the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my career,” Grealish said.
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“I was absolutely heartbroken and then obviously when you’re on your holidays, wherever I was, every time you turn on the phone or turn on the TV or whatever, you just see it. So it was hard to not to see it.”
He added: “For myself now, moving forward, I have to just try to use that as motivation going into this season and try to have the same mentality as I had two years ago.
“In my first season at City I don’t think I performed as well as I could and in the second season I played in a lot of the games and that was down to the first season. I had wanted to come back stronger and I certainly did that, so hopefully I can do that again.”
Grealish put his omission from the England team down to a lack of gametime at Man City amid huge competition in his position. He started just ten Premier League games in 2023/24.
“A lot of the players in the England team on the wings in my position had really good seasons with their clubs,” the former Aston Villa player said.
“Whereas I wasn’t really playing, so it was in the back of my mind I did really need to be playing to be in the England squad, but even when I went there [in the provisional squad before the final selection was confirmed], I did well in the friendly.
“You’d think that I was going to go but there is no bittersweet feeling towards the end of the season. All I wanted to do was win another league title.
“Of course, I wanted to play but it is whatever is best for the team. To win another Premier League is a dream come true.”
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