Declan Rice believes Myles Lewis-Skelly has the potential to have a long England career, but he insists there are no guarantees for the 18-year-old.
Arsenal academy graduate Myles Lewis-Skelly made the perfect start to his England career last week, scoring on his debut for the team and winning the Player of the Match award against Albania.
That performance has been followed by reports that the left-back is set to make another appearance against Latvia, with England low on left-back options and Tino Livramento excluded from Monday’s squad.
Yet speaking to the media over the weekend, Declan Rice played down talk that his club teammate has any guarantees of England starts.
“Look, we have so many good left-backs in the country,” Rice said. “We can’t not mention Lewis Hall, who has been unbelievable for Newcastle this year, obviously [Luke Shaw], he’s been injured, but he’s been unbelievable in an England shirt.
“No one’s guaranteed a starting place in the England team, you need to be on it every time you come here and you need to be able to push to start.
“Myles is only 18, you know? You can’t put that emphasis on him straight away that he’s going to be England’s starter for the next 10 years. You don’t want to put that pressure on him.
“Just let him keep playing, let him keep enjoying his football, and I’m sure you’re going to keep seeing the best of him. If he wants to keep being hungry and being the best he can be, he can definitely have a long England career, for sure.”
There are certainly still a lot of questions to answer before we can say with any sort of confidence that Lewis-Skelly will be playing for England regularly on a long-term basis.
The teenager only has one career cap, so he’ll have to show he can maintain a high level consistently. When Hall and Shaw return to fitness, there’s every chance Thomas Tuchel will opt to bring them back into the fold. And we can’t even say for sure that Lewis-Skelly will remain at left-back.
The youngster initially broke through in the Arsenal academy as a midfielder, only moving to left-back to fill a need Mikel Arteta’s squad had at the time.
Given the injury problems Riccardo Calafiori, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Takehiro Tomiyasu can’t shake off, and the fact Kieran Tierney is leaving in the summer, it’s likely Lewis-Skelly will continue to play the position. But you never know.
If Lewis-Skelly ends up back in midfield, will Tuchel still be as keen on picking him? As Rice highlights, there are no guarantees.
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