England boss Gareth Southgate admits there is a line his players cannot cross following Jack Grealish’s treble celebrations.
The manager stopped short of criticising the forward after his partying grabbed the headlines.
Grealish joined his Manchester City team-mates for a night in Ibiza – following Saturday’s 1-0 Champions League win over Inter Milan which sealed the treble – before they returned on Monday ahead of their trophy parade.
The 27-year-old, Phil Foden, Kalvin Phillips, John Stones and Kyle Walker linked up with the England squad on Tuesday ahead of Friday’s Euro 2024 qualifier in Malta.
They will not start and Southgate insisted any celebrations should not go over the top.
He said: “There is a line but in our head we weren’t thinking of including the City players for this game.
“I have spoken with the players. We have talked about where the focus needs to be, where we need them to be and acknowledged what they have experienced and that’s for me to manage.
“A few of our players would be teetotal. What is different is that everyone posts everything. I wouldn’t have liked a few of my nights out to be posted publicly. My generation would have a lot more problems.
“We know, talking to Hendo (Jordan Henderson), Harry Kane, Tripps (Kieran Trippier) what that game takes out of you.
“It’s a huge occasion and we needed to give those guys the time to take everything in but, point number one, they all wanted to come in to be with the group, which is fantastic.
“I don’t think they would have felt anything unusual about how we have dealt with this and how we have embraced the players back in to the group.
“We have also got the dynamic that while they are chuffed to bits and we are proud of them, a few others are pretty p****d off that they have won it at their expense. You are always really conscious of that.”
