Harry Maguire explains his theory on why quiet Chelsea centre-back was called up ahead of him

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·17 juin 2026

Harry Maguire explains his theory on why quiet Chelsea centre-back was called up ahead of him

Trevoh Chalobah has been called up to the England squad, while Harry Maguire has remained out of the picture.

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After years as a key figure for Gareth Southgate’s England team, most people were expecting Harry Maguire to get a callup for England this summer. He didn’t get one.

Then they will have been expecting him to get a callup to replace the injured Tino Livramento last week. He didn’t get that either.

The defender has explained why he thought Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah was preferred to him or to Trent Alexander-Arnold as an emergency callup.

No fuss Chalobah gets the nod

“When someone drops out like that, I do believe that as a squad, you need to call someone up with the minimum of fuss. No real media attention to it, no disruption to the camp,” Maguire said while working as a pundit for the Rest is Football.

“I don’t think Trent would have ever been called up; when it’s a big game, all the questions would have been about him. If he called me up, it would be about me,” the experienced England defender added.

“Luke Shaw is the same; we’ve been to previous tournaments, we play for big clubs. But congratulations to Trevoh, I hope he does well and has an impact on the squad,” he summarised, on Chalobah’s addition.

Chalobah is really the perfect player for these circumstances, then. He’s about as low profile as an England player could be. He’s not likely to play, he’s not going to cause trouble, he’s not going to grab headlines.

He’s going to go and work hard, bring some positive energy and be ready if the team need to call on him. It’s a great reward for some impressively consistent years in the Premier League.