England manager Southgate to name provisional extended squad

The group will then be reduced to 26 players ahead of the June 1 deadline for squads to be submitted to UEFA ahead of the June 11-July 11 tournament being held across Europe. While the FA did not confirm the size of the squad Southgate is likely to name, various local media reports suggested it could contain more than 30 players.

It is believed Southgate's decision is to allow for key players such as Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson every chance to prove their fitness as they recover from injury. It also factors in the number of England players involved in Wednesday's Europa League final between Manchester United and Villarreal, as well as Saturday's Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester City.

Other nations, including the Netherlands and Italy, have named extended squads that will then be whittled down, while others, such as Spain, have not used their full allocation of 26 players available to them. England face Austria and Romania in friendlies in the first week of June, before their Euro 2020 Group D campaign starts with games against Croatia, Scotland and Czech Republic.