Danny Drinkwater: England call-up for Euro 2016 would be the icing on the cake, but I’d understand axe

1/6
Alex Hurrell18 May 2016

Leicester City midfielder Danny Drinkwater has said that he would understand if he was excluded from England’s final 23-man squad for this summer’s European Championships.

Drinkwater’s key role in Leicester miraculous title win has earned the midfielder a call-up to Roy Hodgson’s provisional 26-man team.

However, he believes that were he to be overlooked in the Three Lions boss’ final decision, the standard of players in the team would justify his omission.

"The midfield has a lot of quality and the players we are talking about have ridiculous quality. They have played at the top level so I would understand," said Drinkwater.

"If it happens I will understand and I'll work hard again next season and see where it goes. I'm just going to train how I usually train and work really hard and if I'm in the 23 [man squad], I'm in the 23."

Drinkwater is expected to be given an opportunity to sway Hodgson’s final decision in England’s upcoming friendlies against Turkey, Australia and Portugal.

"There are three games to play and everyone needs to stay fit and I need to keep my fitness, and hopefully I'll be there at the end," he added.

The 26-year-old made 35 appearances this term for the Foxes, helping them finish the season as champions – 10 points clear of second-placed Arsenal.

Drinkwater says that a call up to this summer’s tournament would be the "icing on the cake" after a fruitful season with Leicester, and is optimistic that England could enjoy similar success.

“Even if I don't make the 23, England have got a massive chance of winning the Euros and I'd love to be involved," he said.

The 26-year-old has enjoyed the best season of his career, winning the Premier League and earning his first England cap in March in a 2-1 loss against the Netherlands, impressing the Wembley crowd with a man of the match performance.

The central midfielder believes that the key to future success for Leicester lies with building on this season’s hard work and not necessarily with making signings.

"Let's not change anything. We've won the Premier League and it's massive," he said.

"Next season there is the Champions League and then we will do what we can to retain the title.

"What this season has done for the club is massive. It's huge, and hopefully we can continue to make it grow."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in