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Danny Drinkwater declined a chance to link up with the national team, Gareth Southgate has revealed.

The Chelsea midfielder chose to instead focus on getting back to full fitness with the Blues having missed action for about two months through injury.

Southgate explained that he gave Drinkwater a call but the 27-year-old admitted he isn’t ready to return to the national team.

“I wanted to find out where he felt he was,” said the England manager.

“He felt he wasn’t ready yet to play this level. ‘If Danny didn’t feel he was ready for that I can understand it given the amount of minutes he’s had and he didn’t play at the end of the season with Leicester either.”