Phil Neville knows he will have some tough decisions to make when naming his England squad for this summer’s Women’s World Cup in France after seeing his side win one and lose one of their recent warm-up friendlies against Canada and Spain.
Writing in The Guardian this week, Louise Taylor highlighted the selection issues facing the Lionesses boss and also quoted Neville as saying: 'Telling people they’re out isn’t easy.
'It’s happened to me three times as a player so I’m probably the best person in the world to understand.'
The former Manchester United and Everton man was in the England squad at three European Championships, in 1996, 2000 and 2004 but two years after each of those tournaments he failed to make the cut for the World Cup.
His 1998 axeing came at the hands of Glenn Hoddle in the La Manga hotel room where Hoddle infamously also told Paul Gasgoigne he would not be travelling to France although the manager's carefully planned schedule of appointments with each of his players was seemingly ruined by Gazza jumping the queue after getting wind of his omission.
England have two further friendly matches, against Denmark and New Zealand before starting their World Cup campaign against Scotland in Nice on Sunday 9 June.