The Bayern Munich star - who has over 100 caps for his country - over the last nine years - isn't happy after nine players have withdrawn from the Lee Carsley's final two matches as interim boss.

He told ITV Sport: "Yeah, it's a shame this week obviously. I think it's a tough period of the season, maybe that's been taken advantage of a little bit.

"I don't really like it if I'm totally honest. I think England comes before anything, any club situation."

The England captain - who previously played for Spurs before making the move to the Bundesliga last year - insisted that former manager Gareth Southgate was "hot on" the importance of playing for the national side.

He added: "I think England comes before anything. England comes before club.

"England is the most important thing you play as a professional footballer and Gareth [Southgate] was hot on that and he wasn't afraid to make decisions if, you know, that started to drift from certain players."

Tent Alexander-Arnold, Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Aaron Ramsdale and Levi Colwill have all dropped out of the squad.

Initially, Everton star Jarrad Branthwaite was called up as a replacement player, but he too has withdrawn.

England are set to play Greece on Thursday (14.11.24) before welcoming Republic of Ireland to Wembley on Sunday (17.11.24).

Carsley - who will be stepping down with Thomas Tuchel taking over in January - wants to "make the most of the situation" and see other players step up.

He added: "With the amount of pull-outs we've had in this window, historically it's been like that in the past. November has always been a challenging window."