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Southgate warns Chelsea defender James: One final chance before Euros

Chelsea defender Reece James has been warned he is putting his Euro 2024 hopes at risk.

The right-back is not set to join up with the England squad for their upcoming Euro qualifiers.

Gareth Southgate has left James out of his squad, despite the defender now being 100 percent fit.

However, he had a warning for James, with Southgate stating: “Well, there is [competition for places] and that's the risk.

“He's only got one more squad before the Euros. So he knows that. And he completely understands it. He has only really been able to be with us in March for the first part of the camp. But that's been because he keeps having these moments where he breaks down so we knew he wasn't 100 per cent. And I was clear, look, we understand that.

“We did discuss that and he was very keen to make clear: 'Look I don't want you to think I don't want to be there', and we had a really good long conversation and exchange of messages after that as well. But I'm very understanding.

“His injury record is very... You can see the number of matches and the different phases. So we are all conscious that we want to have a fit Reece James that can play consecutive games. Because we can only take 23 to a finals and that physical reliability is going to be really important.

“We've got belief in what he can do. And equally we're going to learn a lot about him in the next few months playing as a full-back rather than a wing-back because that's also a different role that's going to have different demands."

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Ansser Sadiq

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