England boss Sarina Wiegman reveals 'hard' message sent to Ellie Roebuck after Man City star loses Lionesses squad spot to Khiara Keating

Roebuck is going through a challenging period in her career as she has not played a single minute since receiving a red card in the Manchester derby in May of last season. She has been replaced by 19-year-old Khiara Keating as the No.1 choice at City by Gareth Taylor. A lack of opportunities at club level has forced Wiegman to take a tough call and exclude her from the squad for the upcoming two fixtures against the Netherlands and Scotland respectively.

Speaking to reporters, Wiegman revealed that she has spoken to Roebuck. While explaining her decision to drop the keeper the coach said: "Yes, of course. That's really hard for her, with the position she has at her club now. And we did have conversations last time around and we decided to go with four goalkeepers.

"Now we went back to three and so I had to give her a hard message that we didn't pick her for now. Of course, she's in a hard position and she just has to work hard and see if she can find opportunities. Right now, in the very short term, that's probably not going to happen.”

During the last camp, Wiegman had called up 24 players, to the national camp but she has cut down on a goalkeeper and opted to go with a 23-women squad this time around. She revealed that it was a "deliberate" move: "Last camp, we had a little bit of different context but for now, these were the players we wanted to see. Also with the goalkeepers, we went back to three and that was very deliberate with the context we have right now and the two games coming up.”

Roebuck faces an uphill battle to force her way back into the England team as she continues to warm the bench at City. The reasons behind Roebuck's limited playing time remain unclear, with few explanations provided for her absence which might force her to think long and hard about her future at the club.