Wayne Rooney argues Gareth Southgate made a mistake with Jarell Quansah

Wayne Rooney has argued that Gareth Southgate made a mistake in the way he treated Jarell Quansah in his role as standby for England’s Euro 2024 squad.

Though he was cut from the provisional squad for the Euros along with Curtis Jones, Quansah was kept with the group for their final warmup friendly against Iceland.

Despite Jones, James Maddison, Jack Grealish, Harry Maguire, Jarrad Branthwaite and James Trafford all departing the camp before that 1-0 loss, the Liverpool defender was retained.

That was, of course, in case of injury, while Southgate explained that it would provide Quansah with experience of a matchday at Wembley.

But speaking on The Overlap, Rooney has argued that it simply made it clear that the 21-year-old had no chance of Travelling to Germany, explaining his experience of watching from TV duties on the touchline.

“I think Gareth should have sent them all home,” he said.

“I watched [Quansah] after the Game. I was on the side of the pitch doing the TV, and I watched every player walk on the pitch after the Game, walk round.

“Soon as the final whistle went Quansah goes in. So straight away you’ve got a split. He’s seen that no one’s injured, he’s probably in, showering and then leaving.

“I felt for him, because he was the only one there.

“I think Gareth should have just said to them all, ‘listen, go home, you’re going to miss the Game, if there’s an injury, be ready’ and give them that 24, 48 hours.

“[He should have said]: ‘If anyone gets injured, be ready in case I call you, after that go on your holidays’.”

Joining Rooney for the panel, Gary Neville compared the situation to that of Jermain Defoe ahead of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

“What Jermain had been asked to do was go right up to the edge of the tournament, because there was a potential that [Wayne] wouldn’t be fit, and that you wouldn’t recover,” Neville explained.

“So [Rooney] walks in, the big man’s back, Jermain had been with us for two or three weeks, Jermain was a popular player, great professional, and we all had to say bye to him.

“It was him on his own, so it’s tough.”

For his part, Quansah was publicly appreciative of his time with England, taking to Instagram to describe it as an “unbelievable experience.”

“Wishing the lads all the best!” the centre-back wrote.