Manchester United starlet makes England's preliminary Euro 2016 squad

The morning's big footballing story is that England manager Roy Hodgson has named what is effectively his preliminary squad for the European Championships. He has selected 26 players for the 'preparation matches', meaning three will be cut before they board the plane to France.

Manchester United have three representatives: two of them, Wayne Rooney and Chris Smalling, are guaranteed their places, barring an injury-related disaster; the third, Marcus Rashford, appears to have been included just for his first international experience.

Roy Hodgson has insisted that the teenage striker is in with a chance of knocking "someone off their perch", though the implication there is that he's currently not on the perch, and it'd presumably take a superhuman effort or an injury crisis for him to make the final squad. For such a young player, it'll certainly be no travesty if he misses out.

#eng squad pic.twitter.com/4EH4LDVHgX

— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) May 16, 2016

Notable United absentees include Luke Shaw and Michael Carrick. The former, having not played a match since breaking his leg in the Champions League last year, was always likely to miss out; the latter will surely be disappointed to do so. His last chance at appearing at a major tournament appears to have now gone for good.