Curtis Jones is set for talks with Thomas Tuchel after being left out of the England squad during the international break.
Liverpool star Jones figured in each of Tuchel's first four games in charge of England, but has been absent from the last three squads and faces an uphill battle to make it into next summer's World Cup squad. Injury kept Jones out of the squad during the September break, but he was simply not selected for England's World Cup qualifiers in October and November.
The Daily Mail says that Jones is among the players that Tuchel plans to contact in the coming weeks to outline what the midfielder must do to force himself back into the international reckoning.
There is plenty of competition for places in England's midfield, with Declan Rice, Elliot Anderson, Adam Wharton and Jordan Henderson all currently ahead of Jones in the pecking order.
Speaking after selecting his squad for the October internationals, Tuchel outlined the difficulties of leaving out in-form players due to the limit on the amount of players he is able to call up.
"Phil Foden is in a very good moment," Tuchel said as he explained the omissions of Foden, Wharton, Jones and Trevor Chalobah. "Adam Wharton deserves to be with us. Curtis Jones and Trevoh Chalobah are getting minutes with their clubs.
"There are players who deserve to be here. Cole Palmer is injured who is a special player. It will always be like this."
Jones has started just two Premier League games for Liverpool this season, with the player clearly not a part of Arne Slot's first-choice midfield trio.
Curtis Jones during a Liverpool training session
Jones has not started many Premier League games this season (Image: Getty Images)
Slot favors playing Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, while the arrival of Florian Wirtz over the summer has intensified the competition for midfield places on Merseyside.
Twelve months ago, Jones scored and was named the player of the match on his debut for England, in a 3-0 win over Greece.
It was around that time that Jones was having arguably his best spell at Liverpool, too, after starring in a crucial win over Chelsea a couple of weeks earlier.
After scoring on his international debut, Jones said: “I just went out there and I was playing free and I had a smile on my face. I was enjoying it and I’m happy I came away with a goal as well.
“When you’ve got a team like ours I can go high and I can come low and I can get on the ball and I can play."