Jack Grealish says his exclusion from the England squad for the summer’s European Championship left him “heartbroken” and that the experience was the toughest of his football career.
The Manchester City winger had been named in Gareth Southgate’s preliminary squad and featured in the pre-Euros friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina, only to be cut from the final party that went on to reach the final in Germany.
Grealish is aiming to bounce back for club and country over the coming months but speaking in Orlando before City face Barcelona on Tuesday, he admitted his disappointment was too big to ignore for much of the summer.
“I’ll be honest it was probably, football-wise, the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my career,” he 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. So it was hard to not to see it.”
Grealish had endured a difficult opening season with City after signing for the club in 2021, but became an integral part of the team that won the treble in his second year, and after an underwhelming third season he is now focusing on recapturing the form, fitness and confidence that made him a permanent fixture for Pep Guardiola in 2022-23.
“For myself now, moving forward, I have to just try to use that as motivation going into this season and try to have the same mentality as I had two years ago,” Grealish said.
“In my first season at City I don’t think I performed as well as I could and in the second season I played in a lot of the games and that was down to the first season. I had wanted to come back stronger and I certainly did that, so hopefully I can do that again.”
The 28-year-old is one of only a handful of senior City players on their U.S. tour, given his omission from England’s squad for the Euros, and he says that provides him with an opportunity to start the season strongly at a time when most of his team-mates will only just be getting up to speed.
“This is my chance to get my fitness, to have a two-week headstart and try to be as fit as possible. And I’m playing with confidence. I feel like that’s what I need and fingers crossed I can do that.”
(Top photo: Eston Parker/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
