England U-21 coach tells Chelsea star Hudson-Odoi to rescind decision over national team snub

England U-21 and Chelsea academy coach, Cole, said Callum Hudson-Odoi is likely to fall behind other young players such as Smith Rowe and Gallagher after rejecting two call-ups to represent The Three Lions.

The Chelsea star has turned down the opportunity to play for the U-21 team with reports of a possible switch to play for Ghana's Black Stars.

According to Cole, Hudson-Odoi is a very talented player and hopes to convince the 21-year-old to rescind his decision.

“The door is always open for quality young players,” he said.

“I feel like maybe seeing that Emile or Conor have the opportunity, I hope that now he changes his mind and comes and joins us."

“That he does not come here is a great loss for us because he is a high-quality player and, of course, he would add a lot of quality to this group."

“He felt like maybe he wanted to fall behind and improve his fitness to try to get into the Chelsea squad first. We have to be understanding about that."

He insists that Southgate is always looking for new talent to join his team.

“The road is there and Gareth has given the players a lot of opportunities now,” he said. “Gareth has mentioned that he is monitoring a lot of players in our group. So if they are playing well for their clubs and they come here to compete, play and train well, then there are opportunities for them.

“We’ve seen it with Emile and Conor at this camp, so who knows in the next few, then we might get some more.”

Also, watch last week's episode of the Friday debate on GhanaWeb TV with Joel Eshun in the post below: