The 22-year-old will not take the trip to Slovakia as the Young Lions bid to defend their 2023 crown as he prioritizes the Club World Cup which starts just a few days prior. Delap signed for Chelsea earlier this week, joining from Ipswich for £30M thanks to a relegation clause which activated once Town dropped down to the Championship.
Delap’s absence from the Young Lions squad will damage Carsley’s chances of success this summer but he revealed that he is happy for the young striker even if his decision may cost him and his country a summer trophy lift.
“I am definitely not disappointed,” he said. “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.
The Blues will face LAFC, Flamengo and Esperance in their opening games as they seek to win the competition for the first time since 2021. Delap will be crucial to their chances of winning the competition and Carsley admitted that his side must adapt to his adbsence and rely on the plethora of talent that they called up such as Harvey Elliott, Omari Hutchinson, Ethan Nwaneri and Jay Stansfield.
“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.”