Jack Grealish opens up on ‘heartbroken’ summer following England rejection for Euro 2024 | OneFootball

Manchester City’s Jack Grealish has opened up on a ‘heartbroken’ summer following his exclusion from the England squad for the European Championships in Germany.

The 28-year-old was dramatically excluded from Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad for the European Championship this summer, as the Manchester City forward was axed ahead of the tournament despite being named as part of an initial 33-man provisional training squad.

Grealish, who has previously made 36 appearances for England, missed the opportunity to reach a second successive European Championship final, as the Three Lions suffered a late 2-1 defeat to Spain in Berlin earlier this month.

The Birmingham-born star was one of a number of surprise omissions from the England squad for the tournament, with Marcus Rashford, James Maddison and Harry Maguire also not selected by former England manager Southgate.

Grealish had struggled throughout the 2023/24 campaign in the build-up to the tournament, failing to make an appearance for Pep Guardiola’s side since a 5-1 win over Wolves at the Etihad Stadium in early May.

The forward made just 26 starts for Manchester City last season, with Grealish scoring only three goals – the Englishman’s lowest tally since arriving at the Etihad Stadium in 2021 from Aston Villa for £100 million.

Speaking to reporters on Monday night ahead of Manchester City’s penultimate pre-season friendly clash with Barcelona in Orlando, Florida, Jack Grealish was quizzed on his exclusion from Southgate’s England squad over the summer months.

“I’ll be honest, it was probably – football wise – the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to deal with, in terms of my own career,” Grealish said.

“I was absolutely heartbroken. And then obviously when you’re on your holidays, wherever I was, every time you turn on the phone or turn on the TV or whatever, you just see it.”

He continued: “So it was hard not to see it really. But for myself now, I’m moving forward. I have to just try and use that as motivation going into this season, and try and have the same mentality as I had two years ago, in my first season at City.

“I don’t think I performed as well as I could of, and then in the second season, I played in a lot of the games, and that was down to the first season that I had and I wanted to come back stronger and I certainly did that, and hopefully I can do that again now.”

Grealish is part of Guardiola’s pre-season touring squad of the United States this summer, with Manchester City having a handful of first-team players available for the four-match tour which involves games against Celtic, AC Milan, Barcelona and Chelsea.

The Sky Blues have two matches remaining, having suffered defeats to both Celtic and AC Milan in their opening two pre-season friendlies.