Tottenham star Harry Winks and Everton’s Mason Holgate pull out of England Under-21s squad with ‘ankle issues’

TOTTENHAM star Harry Winks has withdrawn from the England Under-21s squad along with Everton's Mason Holgate.

The FA confirmed the news this afternoon that the duo have both returned to their respective clubs.

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Both players are suffering with "ankle issues", according to the governing body.

Midfielder Winks, who made his senior debut for the Three Lions last year, is now heading back to Spurs for further assessment on his problem.

And Holgate is set to undergo minor surgery on his ankle following his withdrawal.

The pair will now miss the upcoming games against Romania on March 24 and Ukraine on March 27.

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It will be particularly painful for Winks to miss out on international football again after injury ruled him out of contention for November's matches.

Aidy Boothroyd's side head to Wolves' Molineux home on Saturday afternoon for a friendly before continuing their quest for European Championship qualification at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane on Tuesday.

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England currently top their group and are five points ahead of joint-second placed nations Ukraine and Holland.

Despite the withdrawal of two of the more experienced men, Boothroyd still has a large 24-man squad to choose from.

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And over the coming days he has called on the Young Lions to strengthen their position in qualifying for next year's showpiece in Italy and San Marino.

He told TheFA.com: “It’s been a good start to our new Euro campaign.

"We’ve got 13 points from the five games, a five-point lead at the top of our group and after analysing all of those games from different areas, we still think we could be better, so that’s a real positive.

"We’ll now be working hard to make sure we keep improving on our games so far and we’ve got two matches this month against Romania and Ukraine to try and do that."

THE ENGLAND UNDER-21S SQUAD

Goalkeepers
Angus Gunn (Norwich City (loan from Manchester City)), Dean Henderson (Shrewsbury Town (loan from Manchester United)), Freddie Woodman Aberdeen (loan from Newcastle United))

Defenders
Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Ben Chilwell (Leicester City), Jake Clarke-Salter (Sunderland (loan from Chelsea)), Dael Fry (Middlesbrough), Jonjoe Kenny (Everton), Ryan Sessegnon (Fulham), Fikayo Tomori (Hull City (loan from Chelsea)), Kyle Walker-Peters  (Tottenham), Joe Worrall (Nottingham Forest)

Midfielders
Tom Davies (Everton), Kieran Dowell (Nottingham Forest (loan from Everton)), Ovie Ejaria (Sunderland (loan from Liverpool)), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal), Josh Onomah (Aston Villa (loan from Tottenham)

Forwards
Tammy Abraham (Swansea City (loan from Chelsea)), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Demarai Gray (Leicester), Jack Harrison (Middlesbrough (loan from Manchester City)), Ademola Lookman (RB Leipzig (loan from Everton)), James Maddison (Norwich City), Dominic Solanke (Liverpool)

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