Four Southampton players named in England under-21 squad for European Championships

James Ward-Prowse, Nathan Redmond, Matt Targett and Jack Stephens have all got the nod for the trip to Poland.

Sam McQueen missed the cut and has been placed on stand-by, having been included in Aidy Boothroyd’s initial 28-man squad which was today officially trimmed back.

England start their campaign against holders Sweden on June 16 in Kielce

The Young Lions also face rookies Slovakia on June 19 and hosts Poland on June 22 in Group A.

For all the Saints men this represents the last opportunity to play for the Young Lions, with each of them too old to continue with the nation’s final age group team after the Euros.

In Poland they will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the last Saints man to win the European Under-21 Championships, Danny Wallace, who triumphed under Dave Sexton, who also led England to their only other win at the competition in 1982.

The London-born attacker played for Saints from 1980-1990, scoring 79 goals in 299 starts, and was part of the Euro 1984-winning under-21 squad which defeat Spain 3-0 in the final.

Since then, 33 years without winning the tournament have followed, with the closest England getting to the silverware the 4-0 defeat to Germany in the final of the 2009 Euros in Sweden.

Martin Cranie and Theo Walcott were the only men involved that night with any Saints connection, but both of them, by then, were no longer at St Mary’s.

Chelsea midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek has been ruled out along with Patrick Roberts and Izzy Brown.

Boothroyd said: "We have some good players and like for any international team, bringing them all together and getting them all to work as a single unit, that is always the challenging part.

"But we've got players with big-game experience now, lads who have played in cup finals, play-off finals, big games and a couple of senior internationals.

"In this particular age group we have a very capable, mature squad with a nice balance between the soldiers and the artists, so I'm really looking forward to it.

"I think we're well equipped on paper and it's now about putting some hard work in on the grass, which we've been doing over the last three weeks to be ready for the tournament."

Chelsea's Loftus-Cheek has been struggling with a back problem and made just 11 appearances for Chelsea last season.

Roberts, on loan from Manchester City, won the treble with Celtic and Brown helped Huddersfield to promotion to the Premier League via the Sky Bet Championship play-offs and long seasons have not helped their recovery.

Skipper James Ward-Prowse and Southampton team-mate Nathan Redmond are included ahead of their final under-21 tournament before they become too old.

Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford will also go along with Leicester duo Ben Chilwell and Demarai Gray and Chelsea's Tammy Abraham and Nathaniel Chalobah.

Senior boss Gareth Southgate confirmed last week Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford would not go to Euro 2017 and would instead stay with the senior side for their games against Scotland and France. United boss Jose Mourinho had previously said he saw no point in Rashford playing at the tournament.

Abraham, Redmond, Gray and Fulham's Cauley Woodrow are likely to be Boothroyd's central striker options.

Southampton midfielder Sam McQueen and Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith are on standby.

England squad: Gunn (Manchester City), Mitchell (Derby), Pickford (Sunderland), Chambers (Arsenal), Chilwell (Leicester), Hause (Wolves), Holding (Arsenal), Holgate (Everton), Iorfa (Wolves), Mawson (Swansea), Stephens (Southampton), Targett (Southampton), Baker (Chelsea), Chalobah (Chelsea), Grealish (Aston Villa), Hughes (Derby), Swift (Reading), Ward-Prowse (Southampton), Abraham (Chelsea), Gray (Leicester), Murphy (Norwich), Redmond (Southampton), Woodrow (Fulham).