The duo Mason Greenwood (Manchester United) and Phil Foden (Manchester City) will not be able to go with the English team to Denmark and to the meeting in the Nations League. This is confirmed by Gareth Southgate at a press conference.

It’s all because both have now been found to have violated the national team’s rules regarding the coronavirus. Earlier Monday, several British media outlets, including The Times, reported that the players had been visited by two women at the national team hotel. The images that were reported to be from that time will also be posted on the Snapchat platform and later posted by Icelandic DV.

However, according to Southgate, the incident in question did not occur in the parts of the hotel where the national team lives. That these are visits from two women are not details I want to go into.

– Nothing has happened in the areas where we live. We are still gathering information on this because it came to my attention just a couple hours before training so I’m still trying to control the details. What is clear is that there has been a violation of the guidelines for covid-19, says Southgate.

None of the players trained with the national team on Monday and are now sent home.

– No other player in our squad has had contact with the players and they were not present at breakfast or training. It is a very serious situation and we have treated it that way, says Southgate.

– Right now I’m trying to collect a lot of information. It is obvious that they were naive and we have solved it. I know how old they are (Greenwood 18 and Foden 20) but the world is dealing with a pandemic. I am the father of young people and I know that it can be done wrong but I do not use it as an excuse in this case.

The incident is now being investigated by the English Federation, FA. It is not clear how all this affects the future of the players in the national team.

– These two guys will end up in a position where many outsiders will judge. They destroy what they have done wrong. Our job is to continue with the sport.

Foden and Greenwood had to debut for the national team against Iceland in the last match, Saturday’s victory. The foot played from the beginning and Greenwood had to jump.

Players will now fly home to England. According to Southgate, they have apologized.