Brighton & Hove Albion defender Tariq Lamptey is considering switching his international allegiance from England to Ghana after being approached by the Ghana Football Association.
England U21 coach Lee Carsley revealed this, claiming that the young right-back asked to be left out of the Young Lions’ recent squad call-up.
The 21-year-old was expected to be selected for the Young Lions’ upcoming four Euro qualifiers against the Czech Republic, Albania, Kosovo, and Slovenia.
However, the former Chelsea man has decided to sit out while deciding whether or not to play for the Black Stars.
“There’s an issue over his dual nationality. He’s had an approach. It’s something he’s considering at the minute,” Young Lions boss Lee Carsley revealed.
“He’s asked to be left out of the squad for a bit of head space. He’s not switched, it’s not cemented or anything like that.
“But he’s had an approach (from Ghana), we have to respect that.
“We’ve made it clear how important we see him to us. I know the seniors have as well.
“It’s not something that we’ve given up on. Tariq is fully aware of how important we see him.”
England have a wealth of options in his position, including the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Reece James, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, James Justin, Kyle Walker-Peters, Tino Livramento and more.
In this U21 squad alone, there are promising right-backs in Nottingham Forest loanee Djed Spence, Norwich’s Max Aarons and Ben Johnson of West Ham.
Carsley added: “I’ve definitely got to give him a bit of space now. We’ve got a squad of players there that are desperate to play for England.
“I wouldn’t want to leave one out to bring one in that’s unsure, I don’t think that’s fair.
“But the opposite to that is Tariq is a big player for us and we see a real future for him within the pathway, so I’ll definitely be going back to him.
“He would be a big loss. We do have some really good right-backs but that doesn’t mean we should become blasé about our players.
“We see Tariq as an important player for not potentially only the senior team but the 21s as well.”
Source: 3news.com|Ghana
