Delap to miss Under-21 Euros with England to play at Club World Cup for new club Chelsea | OneFootball

New Chelsea signing Liam Delap will not take part in England Under-21’s European Championships in Slovakia this summer.

The 22-year-old, who completed a £30 million move to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday from Ipswich Town, is now expected to travel to the United States for the FIFA Club World Cup instead.

Lee Carsley’s side are the reigning Champions of the tournament, having won the 2023 edition in Georgia with the likes of Cole Palmer, Emile Smith Rowe and Morgan Gibbs-White, all of which have gone on to make the senior squad.

Liverpool’s Harvey Elliot and Toulouse’s Charlie Cresswell are the only members of that squad to remain with the 2025 side.

West Brom’s Tom Fellows will also travel with the squad as an additional training player.

Jobe Bellingham, brother of Real Madrid and Three Lions star Jude, has been included in the squad despite German side Borussia Dortmund’s increasing interest in the Sunderland star. Any deal for Bellingham to be included in their Club World Cup side would need to be completed by June 10. The transfer window then reopens June 16.

England kick-off their campaign against the Czech Republic on Thursday 12 June, before facing Slovenia three days later on June 15, before their completing their group-stage matches against Germany on Wednesday, 18 June.

Speaking about Delap’s absence, England U21 boss Carsley said: “I am definitely not disappointed.

“I am delighted for Liam and his family. I think it is a brilliant thing for an English centre-forward to play in the Premier League at such a prestigious club like Chelsea.

“Hopefully he will do really well there and push for the senior team. We will move on, we moved on quite quickly.

“I think we have always known that two or three of the players could move to clubs that were playing in the Club World Cup and we have been preparing for this for a while.

“I think the Club World Cup hasn’t come out of the blue. We have been preparing for this competition now for two years, knowing that the Club World Cup was always in the background.

“I think what it has done is made sure we were adaptable and able to monitor a lot more players, knowing that this potentially could come into play.

“So it is not frustrating one bit and I definitely still see the importance of some of our players that will play in that competition. It’s a brilliant thing for them to do.

“We have to be creative with our team selection and the way we try and get players into the team. Obviously, trying to play to the players’ strengths, and I think we can do that.”

Full squad

Goalkeepers: James Beadle (Brighton and Hove Albion), Teddy Sharman-Lowe (Chelsea), Tommy Simkin (Stoke City)

Defenders: Charlie Cresswell (FC Toulouse), Ronnie Edwards (Southampton), CJ Egan-Riley (Burnley), Tino Livramento (Newcastle United), Brooke Norton Cuffy (Genoa), Jarell Quansah (Liverpool)

Midfielders: Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest), Jobe Bellingham (Sunderland), Archie Gray (Tottenham Hotspur), Hayden Hackney (Middlesbrough), Jack Hinshelwood (Brighton and Hove Albion), Tyler Morton (Liverpool), Alex Scott (AFC Bournemouth)

Forwards: Harvey Elliott (Liverpool), Omari Hutchinson (Ipswich Town), Sam Iling Jnr (Aston Villa), James McAtee (Manchester City), Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal), Jonathan Rowe (Marseille), Jay Stansfield (Birmingham City)