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Wayne Rooney believes that Trent Alexander-Arnold has no chance of forcing his way into the England squad for the World Cup. The Real Madrid right-back was a surprise omission from the 35-man squad for the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan, with Thomas Tuchel preferring other players in his position.

Newcastle's Tino Livramento and Tottenham's Djed Spence are both in the Three Lions squad, while Arsenal's Ben White was called up after Bayer Leverkusen's Jarell Quansah withdrew through injury. Alexander-Arnold has 34 England caps and is now back playing regularly for Real following an injury-hit period.

After being left out of the latest squad, the 27-year-old posted cryptically on social media: "Real Madrid and nothing else." It suggests he knows his chances have gone of making an international comeback in time for the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada this summer.

England legend Rooney was baffled by Tuchel's decision and feels it can't be based on purely football reasons. "The one big surprise, obviously, was Trent," Rooney said on his BBC podcast. "I find it incredible that he’s not in a 35-man squad. It didn’t sound like there was any way back for Trent in the squad, the way Thomas Tuchel spoke.

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"But he should be in that squad. Look at his ability, his quality – I know he’s not the best defender, he’ll probably admit that himself. But what he has on the ball is something no other English player has. He’s been playing for Real Madrid recently and playing really well.

"I think sometimes we judge players too quickly and I’ve been guilty of that myself. You don’t know how difficult it was for him to go over there to settle in and he picked up a few injuries as well. He’s had a run of games now and there’s no doubting his ability. He’s as good on the ball as any player we’ve seen in the Premier League.

"There’s an argument that he should start for England. So to not have him in the squad, it feels a little bit deeper from Tuchel. Now I know he’s close with Jude [Bellingham] and it looks like there’s been a few issues with Jude not being in the squad of late. So maybe Tuchel feels there’s a clique there and he’s trying to split that up. I don’t know, I don’t know what the reasons are."

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Tuchel said it was a "tough decision" to omit Alexander-Arnold, adding: "I know very well what Trent can offer us. I played many times against him and suffered when he played against my teams with Liverpool. So I know very well about his strength and what he can give.

"But at the moment it is like we have evidence how good we were in September, October, November, and the players who are in camp for right full-back, they have to push for their ticket, they have to compete, they have to show again that they deserve this."

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