Chelsea icon Mikel names the Manchester United player Southgate should have taken to Euro 2024

Chelsea legend John Obi Mikel Obi has questioned the omission of Manchester United's forward Marcus Rashford from England's preliminary squad for the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship.

The omission  of the 26-year-old by Gareth Southgate was one of the major talking points when the names of the squad members were released last month.

According to Southgate, his omission was as a result of his poor form in the just concluded campaign as the versatile forward could only register eight goals and five assists across all competitions, a far cry from the 30 goals and 10 assists he bagged in the previous season.

With an avalanche of quality forwards in the Three-Lions squad, the Manchester United forward had to be dropped, a decision that has caused different reactions from fans and pundits.

Mikel falls in the camp of those that have questioned the omission of the 2022/2023 UEFA Europa League joint top-scorer from the England squad.

"There's no Marcus Rashford, there's no Jadon Sancho, those are big calls, are England going to regret that?" he told talkSPORT.

"Marcus Rashford has played for England, he's an established international player, sometimes in these tournaments you have to take out the performance throughout the season, it comes down to experience, who has done it.

"He's done it at the international level, in my opinion, I thought it was the wrong decision because... you go into this tournament and it just clicks for that player all of a sudden, because he's been there, he's done it.

"He's played in these kind of games, he knows how to play these kind of games. Is that going to be a big call? Because when Rashford is on fire, he plays really well, so we'll wait and see."

Since Rashford made his debut for the Three Lions in 2016, he is yet to miss any major tournament with this summer European championship set to be his first.

He has 60 caps for England and has scored 17 goals, three of which were scored at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Abdulkareem Abdulhamid

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